title: A soft, wearable microfluidic device for the capture, storage, and colorimetric sensing of sweat.
abstract: Capabilities in health monitoring enabled by capture and quantitative chemical analysis of sweat could complement, or potentially obviate the need for, approaches based on sporadic assessment of blood samples. Established sweat monitoring technologies use simple fabric swatches and are limited to basic analysis in controlled laboratory or hospital settings. We present a collection of materials and device designs for soft, flexible, and stretchable microfluidic systems, including embodiments that integrate wireless communication electronics, which can intimately and robustly bond to the surface of the skin without chemical and mechanical irritation. This integration defines access points for a small set of sweat glands such that perspiration spontaneously initiates routing of sweat through a microfluidic network and set of reservoirs. Embedded chemical analyses respond in colorimetric fashion to markers such as chloride and hydronium ions, glucose, and lactate. Wireless interfaces to digital image capture hardware serve as a means for quantitation. Human studies demonstrated the functionality of this microfluidic device during fitness cycling in a controlled environment and during long-distance bicycle racing in arid, outdoor conditions. The results include quantitative values for sweat rate, total sweat loss, pH, and concentration of chloride and lactate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Ahyeon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.|Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon 443-749, Korea.
authors.forename: Daeshik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Yeguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Seungmin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: L'Oréal Technology Incubator, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.
authors.forename: Rafal M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Pielak
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.|Department of Energy Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeonghyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Taehwan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Seunghwan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Min
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Banks
authors.affiliation: L'Oréal Research and Innovation, Aulnay-sous-Bois, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bastien
authors.affiliation: L'Oréal Early Clinical, Clark, NJ 07066, USA.
authors.forename: Megan C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Manco
authors.affiliation: Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.|Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Institute of Chemical Machinery and Process Equipment, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, Sarver Heart Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
authors.forename: Kaitlyn R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Ammann
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Kyung-In
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Phillip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Won
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Seungyong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: MC10 Inc., Cambridge, MA 02140, USA.
authors.forename: Roozbeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghaffari
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
authors.forename: Ungyu
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Paik
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, Sarver Heart Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.
authors.forename: Marvin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Slepian
authors.affiliation: L'Oréal Technology Incubator, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.
authors.forename: Guive
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Balooch
authors.affiliation: Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. jrogers@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rogers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002648:Child; D002712:Chlorides / Q000737:chemistry; D003124:Colorimetry / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005947:Glucose / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D008297:Male; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D000068997:Smartphone; D013542:Sweat / Q000737:chemistry*; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D000076251:Wearable Electronic Devices; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002712:Chlorides; D019344:Lactic Acid; D005947:Glucose