Abstract
Present-day dermatological diagnostic tools are expensive, time-consuming, require substantial operational expertise, and typically probe only the superficial layers of skin (~15 μm). We introduce a soft, battery-free, noninvasive, reusable skin hydration sensor (SHS) adherable to most of the body surface. The platform measures volumetric water content (up to ~1 mm in depth) and wirelessly transmits data to any near-field communication–compatible smartphone. The SHS is readily manufacturable, comprises unique powering and encapsulation strategies, and achieves high measurement precision (±5% volumetric water content) and resolution (±0.015°C skin surface temperature). Validation on n = 16 healthy/normal human participants reveals an average skin water content of ~63% across multiple body locations. Pilot studies on patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), psoriasis, urticaria, xerosis cutis, and rosacea highlight the diagnostic capability of the SHS (PAD = 0.0034) and its ability to study impact of topical treatments on skin diseases.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | eabd7146 |
Journal | Science Advances |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 49 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 4 2020 |
Funding
S.R.M. acknowledges support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF DGE-1842165). Z.X. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant no. 12072057] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant no. DUT20RC(3)032]. R.A. acknowledges support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF DGE-1842165) and Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. Y.H. acknowledges support from the NSF (CMMI1635443). This work used the Northwestern University Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility (NUFAB), which is partially supported by Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205), the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (DMR-1720139), the State of Illinois, and Northwestern University.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General