Sussex seaweed sensor inspired by Masterchef

The sensor was created using food-grade algae mixed with a pristine, aqueous graphene suspension. The resulting nanocomposite films were then processed into biodegradable hydrogels, which formed the basis of the sensors.

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According to the team, their sustainable sensors outperform existing synthetic-based hydrogels and nanomaterials, currently used in wearable health and fitness monitors. Their paper, published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, describes how the seaweed-graphene hydrogels were so sensitive that they could measure an object just 2mg in mass landing on their surface, equivalent to a single rain droplet. Lead researcher Dr Conor Boland took inspiration for the work from an unusual source.

“I was first inspired to use seaweed in the lab after watching MasterChef during lockdown,” said Boland, a materials physics lecturer at Sussex’s School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. “Seaweed, when used to thicken deserts, gives them a soft and bouncy structure – favoured by vegans and vegetarians as an alternative to gelatin. It got me thinking: ‘what if we could do that with sensing technology?’.”