On-Body Chemical Sensors for Monitoring Sweat

In this paper, we discuss the challenges of performing on-body chemical analysis of body fluids. Wearable chemosensors are a relatively novel implementation, bringing new challenges to the field of wearable sensor technology and body sensor networks. Integration of chemical sensors into a textile substrate is a challenging task, as a chemical reaction must happen for these devices to generate a signal. Furthermore, they often require mixing samples and reagents, which results in waste generation. Therefore a wearable chemosensor must be capable of controlling the movement of these substances for a reaction to occur before generating a signal that can be measured. In this paper, we present the design and development of platforms to collect and analyse sweat in-situ and provide real-time feedback to the wearer. Two approaches are described, the first a textile based approach developed during the EU BIOTEX project. The second improves on this design through miniaturisation of the device by using a micro-fluidic platform. The performance of the developed systems is presented and the relevance of these wearable lab-on-a-chip devices is discussed for personalised healthcare and sports performance.