sensors tagged posts

Researchers 3D Print unique Micro-Scale Fluid channels used for Medical Testing

Researchers at the University of Minnesota are the first to 3D print microfluidic channels on a curved surface, providing the initial step for someday printing them directly on the skin for real-time sensing of bodily fluids. Credit: McAlpine Group, University of Minnesota.

In a groundbreaking new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota, in collaboration with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, have 3D printed unique fluid channels at the micron scale that could automate production of diagnostics, sensors, and assays used for a variety of medical tests and other applications.

The team is the first to 3D print these structures on a curved surface, providing the initial step for someday printing them directly on the skin for real-time sensin...

Read More

Sweat Science: Engineers detect Health Markers in Thread-based, Wearable Sweat Sensors

Lactate curve from sweat sensor
Lactate curve from sweat sensor during exercise

Real-time measurement of electrolytes and metabolites could be used to diagnose and monitor disease or track performance. Engineers at Tufts University have created a first-of-its-kind flexible electronic sensing patch that can be sewn into clothing to analyze your sweat for multiple markers. The patch could be used to to diagnose and monitor acute and chronic health conditions or to monitor health during athletic or workplace performance. The device, described today in the journal NPJ Flexible Electronics, consists of special sensing threads, electronic components and wireless connectivity for real time data acquisition, storage and processing.

Typical consumer health monitors can track heart rate, temperature, glucose, walking distan...

Read More

New study reveals a Graphene Sheet behaves ‘Like a mirror’ for water molecules

An image showing graphene water molecules on both sides of graphene. Because graphene is a conductor of electricity, water molecules on both sides of the graphene attract each other by the same charges. (Courtesy image)

A recently published study led by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers sheds new light on how water interacts with the nanomaterial graphene, a single, thin layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice.

The researchers’ findings could hold implications for a variety of applications, including sensors, fuel cell membranes, water filtration, and graphene-based electrode materials in high-performance supercapacitors.

The study, “Solvent–Solvent Correlations across Graphene: The Effect of Image Charges,” was published in the American Chemica...

Read More

Twisting 2D materials uncovers their superpowers

three different interlayer twist angles and their subsequent crystalline symmetry
The twist angle between the layers governs the crystal symmetry and can lead to a variety of interesting physical behaviours, such as unconventional superconductivity, tunnelling conductance, nonlinear optics and structural super-lubricity.

Researchers can now grow twistronic material at sizes large enough to be useful. While an exciting potential area of nanotechnology, twistronics until now has mostly been explored on samples smaller than human hairs. Now researchers can produce samples on the centimetre scale.

2D materials, which consist of a single layer of atoms, have attracted a lot of attention since the isolation of graphene in 2004...

Read More