Biobased ultrasound transparent electrode enabled synchronized ultrasonography and electromyography acquisition towards neuromusculoskeletal assessment

Around 1 billion people in the world live with various disabling conditions.

Accurate biological signals acquisition (such as surface electromyography (sEMG) and ultrasonography) is critical for reliable neuromusculoskeletal assessmenttowards personalized rehabilitation.

Challenges lie in the synchronized ultrasonography and sEMG collection due to lack of ultrasound (US) transparency of the current electrodes.

The project aims to solve the issue by developing US transparent electrode (UltraTransE) with US gel function integrated through wood nanoengineering. Flexible wood hydrogel is designed as the substrate.

Electrically conductive materials are deposited on the wood hydrogel through printing or laser induced graphitization to form UltraTransE. The performance of the UltraTransE will be evaluated by synchronized ultrasonography and sEMG detection. To achieve this, fundamental understanding of wood nanostructure development during the treatment will be studied.

The relationship between wood structure and properties (mechanical and ultrasound) will be investigated and further guides the wood nano structural control.

A scalable wood nanoengineering toolbox will be established for wood modification towards US transparent bioelectronic sensing systems.

Understanding the interaction between electrically conductive electrode materials and hydrogel will be formulated for the technologies’ development towards ultrasound transparent hydrogel electronics assembly.