Spotlight: Detecting biosignals with Sebastian Klenk

Click the video to learn more about his research.

Why do we need new electrodes for biosignal detection? If you have done some EEG measurements on your head, you know that they always use gel, and the gel can dry out after a while. It leads to a decrease in conductivity and can irritate your skin. In the long term, we need electrodes that can be directly applied to your muscles or head without the need for gel. These electrodes should maintain a good signal for EMG (electromyography), ECG (electrocardiography), and EEG (electroencephalography) measurements.

So, what did we do? Initially, we used graphene as electrodes, and later, we also utilized graphene oxide. We adapted a technique familiar from our childhood - temporary tattoos. You probably used some temporary tattoos where you had to place onto your skin, make it wet and pull off the paper. Instead of attaching a tattoo, we attached the graphene electrodes to your skin using the same principle. These electrodes can be connected to your monitoring devices. For example, in EMG measurements, we can observe the difference between a relaxed hand and a clenched fist, allowing us to record and analyze these variations.

We also conducted EEG measurements. We found a volunteer with relatively short hair, and it worked quite well. We successfully connected his head to our measuring devices. The plan for the future is to use these types of electrodes in ECG measurements for monitoring the heart and EEG measurements for monitoring brain activity. Additionally, they can be used in EMG measurements.