Imagine that you travel or work in a remote place. For example, you are looking for an oasis in the desert or collecting specimens in the mountains. You may need to track your health information in real time; or, in the event of an accident, a doctor needs to urgently and accurately monitor the patient’s vital signs.
Obviously, the above situation requires a device that is highly sensitive and can accurately and conveniently collect important health information at any time.
Now, A new self-powered wrist-worn health monitor can track the wearer’s pulse and communicate wirelessly with a nearby smartphone or tablet. Crucially, all this without the need for an external power source or battery.
Recently, in a latest study published in "Nano Energy" , a research team from University of California, Irvine developed this new device, which is achieved by 3D printing nanomaterials on a flexible substrate. Battery-free, wireless vital signs monitoring anytime, anywhere.
This self-powered wireless device does not need to rely on batteries. After all, batteries run out of power at some point, and there's also the issue of thermal runaway, where the battery overheats and causes combustion.
Researchers say that while the current device prototype functions as a self-powered radial artery pulse monitor, other health indicators such as heart rate, body temperature or blood pressure could be measured by simply changing the sensor circuitry.
This new wearable device provides health information in two modes. In one mode: electricity generated by a tap on the wristband's nanoenergy generator powers the sensor circuitry, and the wearer's pulse rate is soon displayed as a flashing signal on the LED display .
The second mode works when a smartphone or similar device is placed close to the wearable. embedded Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enables the wireless exchange of energy and data between the wristband and mobile device, and biophysical information is drawn and displayed on the smartphone screen.
The on-demand and self-powered nature of the new device is achieved through a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), which generates voltage through mechanical tap or pressure. TENGs are manufactured using titanium-based MXene, a relatively new ultra-thin 2D material with a graphene-like structure that has unique electrical and mechanical properties. The MXene layer, which is only a few atoms thick, is bendable and stretchable and can be printed onto the surface of flexible bandage-like materials, wearable armbands or wristbands.
Rahim Esfandyar Pour, co-corresponding author of the study and assistant professor of computer science and biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine, said: "This innovative invention has achieved many important breakthroughs at the same time. It can achieve continuous, battery-free operation anytime and anywhere. , wireless and on-demand health monitoring. Made from low-cost, flexible materials, it is a flexible, fully configurable system that can be tailored to meet a variety of wearable bioelectronic sensor requirements. :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2022.107511
