Applications of Tin Oxide in the Field of Wearable Technology

Escalating rapidity in the technology leads to the exploration of wearable and mobile devices. There is paramount importance of wearable technology for health management as diseases can be timely monitored which in turn circumvent severe medical situations and decrease economic losses. Wearable technology involves the integration of electronic components into textiles or fabrics for wide range of applications including sensors, medical devices and safety instruments [1, 2]. Textiles, owing to their flexible and capillary characteristic, hold imperative position in the fabrication of rapid and inexpensive point-of-care sensing devices [3]. Metal oxides are affirmed to have potential applications in the fabrication of wearable sensors because of their unique electrical, electrochemical and biocompatible properties. With high surface to volume ratio, the sensitivity, selectivity and catalytic activity of metal oxide semiconductors is greatly enhanced. They serve as excellent candidates for the next generation of wireless sensing and online monitoring applications due to the fast response and long lifetime in different environmental conditions. Among the metal oxide semiconductors, SnO2 is considered as one of the important material due to their number of properties, like biocompatibility, anti-oxidant , anti-bacterial, cytotoxic properties, strong physical and chemical interactions with adsorbed species, high degree of transparency in the visible spectrum, low operating temperature etc. [4]. There is an increased usage of SnO2 as modifier electrode materials because of its astonishing features of thermal stability, biocompatibility, excellent bandgap, cost effective and abundant availability. The surface of working electrode is modified by nanomaterials of SnO2 in combination with various metals, semiconductors and carbon derivatives for improved sensing performance. As per the recent reports, tin oxide in find its applications in the field of glucose sensing [5], gas sensing [6], monitoring heavy metals [7], phenol sensing [8] etc. Apart from the reported applications, tin oxide is proved to be a useful candidate in stealth technology [9]. References Y. Yun, W.G. Hong, N. J.Choi, H.B. Kim, Y. Jun, H.K. Lee, Sci. Rep. 5 (2015) 10904. Skrzetuska, M. Puchalski, I. Krucinska, Sensors 14 (2014) 16816. Li, J. Tian, W. Shen, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2 (2010) 1. Vidhu, D. Philip, Spectrochim. Acta, Part A 134 (2015) 372. Sedighi, M. Montazer, S. Mazinani, Biosens. Bioelectron. 135 (2019) 192. Wang, C. Zhao, T. Han, Y. Zhang, S. Liu, T. Fei, S. Liu, T. Zhang, Sens. Actuators, B 242 (2017) 269. Wei, C. Gao, F.L. Meng, H.H. Li, L. Wang, J.H. Liu, X.J. Huang, J. Phys. Chem. C 116 (2011)1034. Guo, P. Cai, , J. Sun, W. He, X. Wu, T. Zhang, X. Wang, Carbon 99 (2016) 571. M Jeong, J. Ahn, Y. K. Choi, T. Lim, K. Seo, T. Hong, G. H. Choi, H. Kim, B. W. Lee, S.Y. Park, S. Ju, NPG Asia Materials 12 (2020) 32.