Soft Liquid Metal-Based Conducting Composite with Robust Electrical Durability for a Wearable Electrocardiogram Sensor

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Abstract
Liquid metals not only have the electrical property of conductivity, but they also have a unique characteristic of existing in a liquid state at room temperature, unlike ordinary stiff solid metals. However, in bioelectronics, the modulus matching well between a device and skin or tissue is considered very advantageous, because high-quality biological signals can be recorded. Therefore, it is possible to implement soft electronics with stable and robust electrical characteristics by using LM as a conductive liquid-state filler. In this study, we changed a type of liquid metal, Eutectic Gallium Indium (EGaIn), into a particle form via tip sonication and mixed it with a solution that dissolved Styrene-Ethylene-Butylene-Styrene (SEBS) in toluene to fabricate a composite. The EGaIn-SEBS composite has high conductivity, excellent electrical durability under mechanically harsh conditions, and a degree of modulus similar to that of bare SEBS, which is lower than that of solid-filler-based SEBS composite. Finally, we demonstrated electrocardiogram signal monitoring using an EGaIn-Alginate two-layer electrode (EATE) that was fabricated by simply coating the surface of the composite with alginate hydrogel, which demonstrates excellent performance in bioelectronics.
Funding Information
  • the Korean government (MSIT) (2020R1C1C1005567, 2020R1C1C1003903, 2022M3E5E9018583, 202012D28, 2020-0-00261, IITP-2020-0-01821, IBS-R015-D1, 2020M3H2A1076786)
  • the Korean government (the Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Health & Welfare, and Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) (2020R1C1C1005567, 2020R1C1C1003903, 2022M3E5E9018583, 202012D28, 2020-0-00261, IITP-2020-0-01821, IBS-R015-D1, 2020M3H2A1076786)
  • the Korean government (MSIT) (2020R1C1C1005567, 2020R1C1C1003903, 2022M3E5E9018583, 202012D28, 2020-0-00261, IITP-2020-0-01821, IBS-R015-D1, 2020M3H2A1076786)
  • MSIT (Ministry of Science and ICT), Korea (2020R1C1C1005567, 2020R1C1C1003903, 2022M3E5E9018583, 202012D28, 2020-0-00261, IITP-2020-0-01821, IBS-R015-D1, 2020M3H2A1076786)
  • The Institute for Basic Science (2020R1C1C1005567, 2020R1C1C1003903, 2022M3E5E9018583, 202012D28, 2020-0-00261, IITP-2020-0-01821, IBS-R015-D1, 2020M3H2A1076786)
  • the Ministry of Science and ICT (2020R1C1C1005567, 2020R1C1C1003903, 2022M3E5E9018583, 202012D28, 2020-0-00261, IITP-2020-0-01821, IBS-R015-D1, 2020M3H2A1076786)
  • SMC-SKKU Future Convergence Research Program (2020R1C1C1005567, 2020R1C1C1003903, 2022M3E5E9018583, 202012D28, 2020-0-00261, IITP-2020-0-01821, IBS-R015-D1, 2020M3H2A1076786)

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