Implementation of hybrid Ag nanorods embedded RGO-PDMS conductive material for flexible and dry electrocardiography sensor

[Display omitted] •AgNRs grown using glancing angle deposition system.•Developing AgNRs embedded RGO-PDMS dry ECG electrodes.•Comparable performance to conventional wet electrodes.•Fabricated electrodes are flexible and biocompatible. An efficient dry electrode is required to effectively record the biopotential signals. This study proposes a dry electrode for ECG monitoring based on highly flexible, conductive, and antibacterial silver nanorods (AgNRs) grown via a novel glancing angle deposition and RGO-PDMS composite matrix. The fabricated electrode possesses good electrical conductivity and skin contact impedance between 70.1 ± 0.7 kΩ to 5.6 ± 1.7 kΩ for frequencies ranging from 40 Hz to 1 kHz, comparable to conventional Ag/AgCl wet electrodes. These electrodes give excellent quality ECG signals and do not cause skin irritation even after several hours of usage. They offer high skin compatibility and good signal quality, which are prominent features for cardiorespiratory monitoring.