Development of a novel electrocardiography sensor based on a composite silver chloride nanoparticles and polyaniline

Abstract

The electrical activity of the heart is detected by electrodes attached to the surface of the skin. These electrodes detect bioelectrical signals in the human body. Physilogical status of heart condition especially cardiovascular diseases and disturbances in the cardiac rthym are recorded by electrocardiography (ECG). Despite the fact that the usage of disposable ECG electrodes in our country is substantial nearly as 70 million in 2010, these electrodes are not fabricated in Turkey. In the scope of this study, it was aimed to develop a novel sensor based on synthesized AgCl/Polyaniline nanocomposites for ECG electrodes. In this study, the production of silver chloride (AgCl) nanoparticles was achieved by the polyol method. ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) was used as a supporting material of the ECG electrode. Synthesized AgCl nanoparticles were not easily adsorbed on the surface of ABS. We develop a synthetic chemistry to perform simultaneous synthesis of AgCl nanoparticle and polymerization of aniline on surface of ABS. Polyaniline acts as a chemical linker between the nanoparticle and ABS surface in the same batch reactor. The synthesized composite based on polyaniline and AgCl nanoparticles completely covers the surface of ABS. To evaluate electrodes, we fabricated a disposable ECG electrode and compared it with the disposable electrodes that are commercially available. The electrocardiography data indicated that the fabricated electrodes were demonstrated a performance which is comparable with the commercial electrodes. The results demonstrate that a novel ECG electrodes can be manufactured based on this new composite material and method develop in our laboratory.