Smart bandage designed to detect infection

News

Researchers at the University of Rhode Island, USA, are developing a smart bandage that could detect and monitor infection in wounds.

The non-invasive method, created by URI assistant Professor Daniel Roxbury and former URI graduate student Mohammad Moein Safaee, involves embedding nanosensors in the fibres of a bandage. 

Roxbury explained that through single-walled carbon nanotubes within the bandage concentrations of hydrogen peroxide can be detected in order to identify an infection. Until now, using nanotubes has presented challenges of immobilising them in a biocompatible manner so that they stay sensitive to their surroundings, he added.

“The microfibres that encapsulate the carbon nanotubes accomplish both of these tasks,” Roxbury said. “The nanotubes do not leach from the material, yet they stay sensitive to hydrogen peroxide within the wounds.”

Designed to be used for diagnostic purposes, the ‘smart bandage’ will be monitored by a minituarised wearable device that can wirelessly (optically) detect the signal from the carbon nanotubes in the bandage.

The signal can then be transmitted to a smartphone-type device that can automatically alert the patient or health care provider.

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