Reduced-Graphene Oxide Electrode in Capturing the Changes of Muscle Activity during Flexion and Extension

This study was performed to determine and evaluate the performance of the graphene-based (reduced-graphene oxide, rGO) sensor as an alternative to silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electrode for data acquisition. Namely, dry electrode versus wet electrode. The main advantage of using rGO electrode is that it is more comfortable for sensitive skin, reusable and convenient. The experiments to capture the changes of biceps brachii and triceps brachii during flexion and extension were conducted to test the performance of dry electrode over wet electrode. The test measurement was carried out using a portable surface EMG (sEMG). MATLAB software was used to process the acquired signals and analysed its signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for both electrodes. In addition, SPSS software was used to determine the significant different of both electrodes and to measure the agreement level of both acquired data by using Bland Altman (BA) analysis plot. At 1kg load, graphene electrode’s SNR = 27.081dB from biceps brachii, SNR = 23.709dB from triceps brachii. Meanwhile, Ag/AgCl electrode get SNR = 24.932dB from biceps brachii, SNR = 24.348dB from triceps brachii. Besides that, it shows agreement of 100 % between both electrode’s performance through BA analysis. This shows that both electrodes are statistically comparable in terms of SNR, and the dry electrodes were able to perceive 100 % of Ag/AgCl electrode to the standard reading of EMG. The solution presented in this study could be a key factor for continuous innovation to increase user comfort and save earth from electrode waste.