A low-cost and simple-fabricated epidermal sweat patch based on “cut-and-paste” manufacture

Continuous, non-invasive, and multi-parametric sensing of sweat is noted to be appealing to many applications such as personalized medicine, athletic performance, and military readiness. Microfluidic sensing patches are widely reported to perform sweat collection, transportation, and multi-parameters analysis; however, time-consuming and multi-step manufacturing process actually prevents the large-scale application. In this study, a “cut-and-paste (CAP)” method is devised to pattern and transfer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film to fabricate the microfluidic patch. The “bear like” patch, composed of four polymer-based layer, are completely carved automatically within 2 min by the desktop cutting machine. The sweat glucose and lactate are monitored in real time with newly proposed wearable sweat patches. The concentration ratio between blood glucose and iontophoresis-induced sweat glucose was over 512.37 as calculated. And the latter lagged behind the former over 70 min about peak of concentration. Also, using the fabricated sensors, we have analyzed the levels of glucose and lactate and compared them in both exercise- and iontophoresis-induced sweat. These results indicate the CAP method has great potential for the microfluidic integrated wearable platforms with low-cost, versatility, and mechanically flexibility, which would promote the development of wearable sweat microfluidic devices and application in individualized health monitoring. A cost-effective microfluidic sweat patch fabricated by “cut- and-paste” manufacture is devised here, which enables to perform sweat collection, transportation and multi-parameters analysis including glucose and lactate. Particularly, The levels of glucose and lactate in exercise-induced sweat and iontophoresis-extracted sweat were evaluated by enzyme-based electrochemical sensors. • “Cut-and-Paste” manufacture was used to fabricate PDMS-based microfluidic sweat patch with low-cost and facile procedure. • Real-time monitoring the sweat glucose and lactate levels during cycling was implemented. • The concentration of glucose and lactate in exercise-induced sweat was compared with that of iontophoresis-extracted.