Plasmonic wearable adhesive patch for a SERS-based sweat sensor

The development of flexible and wearable patches made from biocompatible materials for the molecular fingerprinting of body fluids is an emerging area of research in the field of healthcare devices. Herein, a surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensor was designed and developed using a two-layer paper-based substrate: the first layer was mixed with polydimethylsiloxane and oleic acid for skin adhesion, and the second layer comprised a filter paper with <i>in situ</i> reduced nanoparticles for Raman signal enhancement of sweat components. The design of the patch avoids the direct exposure of nanoparticles and the excitation laser to the skin. The volume ratio of polydimethylsiloxane to oleic acid in the adhesive mixture was optimized for maximum adhesion to various substrates with oil residue. The plasmonic paper employed here exhibited excellent limits of detection of 55.9 μM and 47.8 μM for the sweat components urea and lactate, respectively. By utilizing the skin-adhesive patch, the multiplexed detection of urea and lactate could be achieved directly from sweat using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. The developed SERS patch can be potentially utilized as a wearable healthcare sensor for the molecular fingerprinting of body fluids and opens avenues for the development of such sensors in the field of wearable personalized healthcare devices.