Research Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for a wireless wearable sensor based on triboelectric nanogenerators to monitor respiratory rate and sleep quality in patients with respiratory and related sleep disorders. The proposed system uses nylon 6 as a tribopositive material and various tribonegative materials like polycaprolactone, PBAT, PVA, PEG, and PTFE. The materials are either electrospun films or solution cast films. The sensor will be developed based on the TENG performance during the optimization process. An abdomen/chest belt or band with a TENG module connected wirelessly to a mobile phone will be used for respiration rate monitoring. The signals processing unit consists of two basic units: transmission and reception. The inhalation and exhalation generate AC pulses, which can be digitalized using an operational amplifier (OPAMP). The optimized TENG modules can be integrated on a bed for sleep monitoring experiments. The flexible sleep monitoring system consists of four layers of triboelectric nanogenerators, each containing four to monitor all possible movements. Real-time monitoring of respiration, rate, and sleep quality will be analyzed using the proposed TENG wearable systems.