Self-Charging Dual-Modal Sensor for Glucose Monitoring Based on Piezoelectric Nanowire/Microgel Hybrid Film

Continuous monitoring of bio/physiological signals will play an essential role in personalized, patient-centric medicine in the future healthcare industry. One of the challenges involves providing a sustainable, energy-efficient operation for long-term monitoring devices. The current technology based on power sources requires periodic replacement. Here, a hybrid film composed of a layer of piezoelectric nanowire (PVDFHFP) and a layer of microgel (pNIPAM-APBA) is presented that continuously monitors glucose, does not rely on enzymes, is self-charging, and decouples changes in read-out signals due to glucose detection from the force is applied to activate self-charging. By characterizing self-charging/discharging properties, the operation and sensing mechanism for the nanowire/microgel hybrid film are proposed. A reasonable sensitivity of 70 mV mm-1 with a high linearity value of R2 = 0.9956 is observed. This work demonstrates the potential for use in a self-charging wearable platform that enables continuous monitoring of bio/physiological signals. A hybrid film composed of a layer of piezoelectric nanowire and a layer of microgel is presented that continuously monitors glucose, does not rely on enzymes, is self-charging, and decouples changes in read-out signals due to glucose detection from the force applied to activate self-charging. By characterizing self-charging/discharging properties, the operation and sensing mechanism is proposed for the hybrid film.image