Making things stick: DuPont's latest adhesive offering

Following the launch of its new Liveo soft skin conductive tape and soft skin adhesive at COMPAMED and MEDICA in Dusseldorf in November, Ian Bolland spoke to Jennifer Gemo, global marketing leader – healthcare, DuPont to find out more. 

Liveo Soft Skin Conductive Tape technology 1-3150 is intended for use as a skin dry electrode in biosignal monitoring applications to enable long-term patient monitoring with stable data quality and high patient comfort.

The new conductive tape is intended to be used as a skin interface for electric biosignal monitoring that requires good skin conformability, no drying over time, and repositionability with gentle adhesion and atraumatic removal. It can be used in single electrodes for short-term monitoring and is best suited in medical wearable patches for long-term monitoring lasting seven or more days.

Gemo explained that DuPont has been moving into the digital health and wearable space in recent years, and having a presence at MEDICA as well as COMPAMED was symbolic of that.

“We’ve been present in the digital health space for the past three years so this time it was really a launch year. 

“In addition to our Liveo Soft Skin Conductive Tape we offer Liveo a medical grade soft skin adhesive, the MG 7-9960. This is a medical grade of skin adhesive that we are positioning for medical applications such as advanced wound care but also smart wearable patches that bring a good compromise between gentleness to the skin, conformability to the skin and long wear. 

“This is the higher adhesion version of our range and we’re trying to reach the limits of high adhesion and long wear.”

Liveo Soft Skin Conductive Tape 1-3150 is intended to complement the soft skin adhesive that can be used for longer-term patient monitoring, for example with ECGs or EEGs, or anything that needs a biosignal tracked via an electrode. 

“This is a really novel technology that is built on the backbone of a soft skin adhesive. It will softly adhere to your skin to ensure good contact which is critical for signal quality and patient comfort.”

Gemo explains that the technology is based on silicone chemistry that is resistant to its environment whilst not being irritant to the skin.

“It’s an inert chemistry so it will be resistant to the environment; whether it’s humidity, mechanical stress and it’s non-irritating and non-sensitising also brings this high-quality performance.”

Typically, technology that is used as a skin adhesive are acrylic based that build adhesion over time. Gemo identifies this can be quite aggressive on people’s skin, particularly sensitive skin, while the soft skin adhesive technology developed by DuPont doesn’t develop skin traumas.

“For example, if you have a wound dressing and you made a mistake, you can reposition it without trauma. This is very different from acrylic-based pressure sensitive which can be traumatic to the skin and cause irritation. We know that 5-10% of the population is allergic to acrylic so that’s the beauty of this silicone chemistry that is the backbone of our products.”

The tape and adhesive are targeting the more traditional medical device space as well as the more ‘fashionable’ and contemporary end of wearables and smart devices, with DuPont aiming to expand its portfolio to meet the specificities of the markets and its customers.

The adhesives will be available through DuPont’s traditional distribution channels.