[21p-W351-1~16] 12.3 Functional Materials and Novel Devices

[21p-W351-1] [Young Scientist Presentation Award Speech] Conductive polymer nanosheets towards application as bioelectrodes

〇Kento Yamagishi¹, Toshinori Fujie^1,2, Shinji Takeoka¹ (1.Grad. Sch. of Adv. Sci. & Eng., Waseda Univ., 2.JST PRESTO)

Keywords:Conductive polymer,PEDOT:PSS,Bioelectrode

Development of wearable devices has provided a tremendous improvement for advanced healthcare. Recently, sheet-like skin-attachable electrical devices have been widely reported in the field of flexible, stretchable, and conformable electronics. At the same time, it is of crucial importance for real-world applications to industrialize these technologies by combination with scalable film fabrication techniques. A free-standing ultrathin polymer film (nanosheet) has unique physical properties such as physical adhesion and flexibility due to its huge size-aspect ratio. We also have succeeded in a scalable preparation of nanosheets by a roll-to-roll process. Herein, we constructed conductive polymer nanosheets comprised of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). Conductivity of the PEDOT:PSS nanosheets was enhanced (~500 S/cm) with the addition of several biocompatible plasticizers as secondary dopant. The prepared conductive nanosheets (thickness: 150-350 nm) were collected as a free-standing state from substrates by easy handling and showed physical adhesiveness and high conformability to human skin without using any chemical and biological glue. Such conductive nanosheets were mechanically and electrically stable on the skin against flexion movement and sweating. We also demonstrated that the conductive nanosheets detected surface electromyography (EMG) from a healthy subject with as high a signal-to-noise ratio as conventional pre-gelled electrodes. Finally, towards real-world application such as sports-medical use, we evaluated the stability of the nanosheets on the skin against vigorous exercise under hot and humid condition.