Wearable sweat analysis devices for monitoring of multiple health-related biomarkers with high sensitivity are highly desired for noninvasive and real-time monitoring of human health. Here, we report a flexible sweat analysis patch based on a silk fabric–derived carbon textile for simultaneous detection of six health-related biomarkers. The intrinsically N-doped graphitic structure and the hierarchical woven, porous structure provided the carbon textile good electrical conductivity, rich active sites, and good water wettability for efficient electron transmission and abundant access to reactants, enabling it to serve as an excellent working electrode in electrochemical sensors. On the basis of the above, we fabricated a multiplex sweat analysis patch that is capable of simultaneous detection of glucose, lactate, ascorbic acid, uric acid, Na⁺, and K⁺. The integration of selective detectors with signal collection and transmission components in this device has enabled us to realize real-time analysis of sweat.

Protective clothing plays a vital role in safety and security. Traditional protective clothing can protect human body from physical injure. It is highly desired if modern wearable electronics can be integrated into traditional protection suit to endow it with versatile smart functions. However, it is still challenging to integrate electronics into clothing through a practical approach while keeping the intrinsic flexibility and breathability of textiles. In this work, we realized the direct writing of laser-induced graphene (LIG) on Kevlar textile in air and demonstrated the applications the as-prepared Janus graphene/Kevlar textile in intelligent protective clothing. The C=O and N-C bonds in Kevlar were broken and the remaining carbon atoms were reorganized into graphene, which can be ascribed to photothermal effect induced by the laser irradiation. Proof-of-concept devices based on the prepared graphene/Kevlar textile, including flexible Zn-air batteries, electrocardiogram electrodes, and NO2 sensors, were demonstrated. Furtherly, we fabricated a self-powered and intelligent protective clothing based on the graphene/Kevlar textile. The laser induced direct writing of graphene from commercial textiles in air conditions provides a versatile and rapid route for the fabrication of textile electronics.

Numerous studies have shown flexible electronics play important roles in health management. The way of power supply is always an essential factor of devices and self-powered ones are very attractive because of the fabrication easiness, usage comfort and aesthetics of the system. In this work, based on the metal-air redox reaction, which is usually used in designing metal-air batteries, we design a self-powered chemoelectric humidity sensor where a silk fibroin (SF) and LiBr gel matrix containing parallel aligned graphene oxide (GO) flakes serve as the electrolyte. The abundant hydrophilic groups in GO/SF and the hygroscopicity of LiBr lead to tight dependence of the output current on the humidity, enabling the sensor high sensitivity (0.09 μA/s/1%), fast response (1.05 s) and quick recovery (0.80 s). As proofs of concept, we design an all-in-one respiratory monitoring-diagnosing-treatment system and a non-contact human-machine interface, demonstrating the applications of the chemoelectric humidity sensor in health management.