Knowing what the levels of electrolytes are in one’s body can help athletes train more efficiently and can allow people who perform a lot of physical labor do so in a healthy manner. Sandia National Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin under contract by the U.S. Department of Energy, has developed a prototype sensor able to detect the levels of electrolytes when pressed against the skin.
The device, consisting of a microneedle, a microfluidic chip, and a solid-state ion-selective-electrode (ISE) that samples interstitial fluid present between the skin cells, sparing healthy cells from being sampled and destroyed. This should provide long term, continuous monitoring of electrolytes once integrated into a wrist-worn device and commercialized into a real product. For now the researchers are patenting the technology, preparing for human testing, and envisioning the possibility of having the same chip deliver electrolytes into the skin to make up for any deficiencies.
From the study describing the new device in Advanced Healthcare Materials:
An ion selective transdermal microneedle sensor is demonstrated for potassium by integrating a hollow microneedle with a microfluidic chip to extract fluid through a channel towards a downstream solid-state ion-selective-electrode (ISE). 3D porous carbon and 3D porous graphene electrodes, made via interference lithography, are compared as solid-state transducers for ISE’s and evaluated for electrochemical performance, stability, and selectivity. The porous carbon K+ ISE’s show better performance than the porous graphene K+ ISE’s, capable of measuring potassium across normal physiological concentrations in the presence of interfering ions with greater stability. This new microfluidic/microneedle platform shows promise for medical applications.
Study in Advanced Healthcare Materials: Microneedle-Based Transdermal Sensor for On-Chip Potentiometric Determination of K+…
Sandia press release: Prototype electrolyte sensor provides immediate read-outs…