Smart Mask Fabrication: A Conducting Cloth Based Breath Humidity Sensor
Technology Category/Market
Chemicals – Polymers, Sensors
Computer Sciences & IT – Deep Learning
Applications – Smart Textile, Consumer electronics and Healthcare.
Market: The global humidity sensor market size is projected to grow $11.85 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 14.2% from 2020 to 2027.
Targeted Industries
Watermarking IP design,
Electronic circuits
Image Gallery
Problem Statement
- Humidity monitoring is essential in many fields beyond personal usage, including food processing and medicine.
- Millions of people in the world suffer from a variety of common respiratory problems like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and cystic fibrosis.
- These problems can be regulated by monitoring the components such as carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour, and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained in the individual’s exhaled breath.
- Examining breath samples for disease prognosis is a promising non-invasive option. However, the widespread deployment of traditionally used methods like Mass spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy has been hampered by a number of factors, such as high cost, need for trained staff, and inflexibility.
- Thus, the conducting cloth-based breath humidity sensors in the form of wearable face mask have proven to be a useful solution to a few of the problems.
Technology
The System comprises of 3 parts:
1. Fabricating the conducting cloth based breath humidity sensor:
- The non-woven polypropylene (PP) cloth is soaked in water for 12h, after which the cloth is immersed in aniline solution for 2 min and later soaked in clean water. Thereafter, the cloth is soaked in ammonium persulfate and after which again immersed in clean water (SILAR method).
- This cycle is repeated for 17 times for growth of Polyaniline (PANI) on the cloth, which turns the colour from blue to green. (Fig. 1)
- The next step is Interdigitated silver electrodes were screen-printed on the conducting cloth and was stitched on a mask and transforming it into a smart mask. The sensor was then connected to the measurement circuit via conducting thread using silver paste.
2. Microcontroller: It measures the voltage drop across the sensor.
3. Android application
- An application is developed to collect and visualize the data from the microcontroller.Â
- Using deep learning, the data collected is analyzed to classify and detect the patterns in breathing.
Key Features/Value Proposition
- This humidity sensor using conducting polymers is capable of differentiating slow, normal and fast breathing patterns from nose as well as the mouth.
- Quick response time – The sensors have very quick response time of about one second and can detect a range of relative humidity from 0 – 95%.
- Textile such as PP, cotton, silk, nylon, polyester were used as substrate and poly aniline was in-situ polymerized on the substrate using SILAR.
- Portable sensor – Uses Arduino prototyping platform coupled with Bluetooth module for collecting data wirelessly.
Questions about this Technology?
Contact for Licensing
Research Lab
Prof. Pradeep Thalappil,
Department of Chemistry
Intellectual Property
- IN 202241008331
- IITM IDF Ref. 2293
Technology Readiness Level
TRL 3
Technology is at a Proof of Concept (PoC) stage.