2D Material Inks for Printed Self-Powered Wearable Sensors

Healthcare systems are increasingly reliant on wearable devices which can enable continuous monitoring of key indicators which can trigger interventions. Wireless and continuous monitoring can be achieved by self-powered sensor platforms which rely on energy storage devices such as batteries. Commercially available batteries are normally large, rigid and difficult to customize. In this talk, I will present our work on 3D printed miniaturized supercapacitors and rechargeable aqueous batteries to power wearable sensors. The use of continuous-extrusion-3D printing enables the manufacturing of complex architectures which can meet specific integration requirements, including small footprint areas, small features sizes and mechanical flexibility. We use 2D materials as the materials of choice for the electrodes, and water-based gel electrolytes, to manufacture energy storage devices on flexible substrates. I will discuss the materials challenges in formulating functional inks of 2D materials and different architectural designs to optimize the electrochemical performance of the energy storage devices. Finally, I will then show how these devices can power wearable sensors, from commercial sensors as well as organic electrochemical transistors (OECT).