Textile Chemical Sensors Based on Conductive Polymers for the Analysis of Sweat

Abstract

Wearable textile chemical sensors are promising devices due to the potential applications in medicine, sports activities and occupational safety and health. Reaching the maturity required for commercialization is a technology challenge that mainly involves material science because these sensors should be adapted to flexible and light-weight substrates to preserve the comfort of the wearer. Conductive polymers (CPs) are a fascinating solution to meet this demand, as they exhibit the mechanical properties of polymers, with an electrical conductivity typical of semiconductors. Moreover, their biocompatibility makes them promising candidates for effectively interfacing the human body. In particular, sweat analysis is very attractive to wearable technologies as perspiration is a naturally occurring process and sweat can be sampled non-invasively and continuously over time. This review discusses the role of CPs in the development of textile electrochemical sensors specifically designed for real-time sweat monitoring and the main challenges related to this topic.