Flexible cellulose/polyvinyl alcohol/PEDOT:PSS electrodes for ECG monitoring

Electrocardiography is one of the most significant technologies for detecting cardiovascular diseases. Nowadays, the problems of various electrodes still meet a great challenge. Herein, we design a low cost, environmentally friendly and flexible conductive electrode using cellulose and polyvinyl alcohol as a substrate assembled with conductive polymer polythiophene by in situ oxidative polymerization, and the green solvent 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride as a crosslinking agent. The polyvinyl alcohol/cellulose/PEDOT:PSS(PCPP) composite electrode has excellent features of flexibility, low skin contact impedance and comfortable contact with skin. When the load of EDOT reaches 15 wt%, the electrode is stable and can clearly monitor the characteristic wave of ECG signals. Therefore, based on cellulosic biopolymer and conductive polymer PEDOT:PSS, an environmentally friendly, flexible and stable PCPP composite electrode is obtained and can be a promising candidate applied in the fields of energy storage and ECG sensing.