Phantom limb pain and difficulties in controlling prosthetic limbs remain everyday challenges for many people living with limb loss. Even when advanced prosthetic devices are available, their benefit depends on reliable communication between the user’s muscles and the electronics that interpret their intentions. Regarding therapies for phantom limb pain, this communication is often mediated by gel-based electrodes that must be carefully placed on the skin in a clinic. They work well in controlled settings, but they are messy to apply, uncomfortable over long periods, and are designed for single use. For home-based rehabilitation and long-term monitoring, this is an unsatisfying situation.
In recent years, textile electrodes, fabrics that can sense muscle activity, have emerged as a promising alternative. They can be integrated into comfortable garments and bands, potentially allowing people to put on their “sensing interface” as easily as a sleeve or a sock. However, current textile electrodes still face two critical limitations. First, they struggle to maintain a stable, low-impedance contact with the skin, especially during movement or sweating. Second, their durability under repeated use and washing is often poor. These shortcomings limit their use in demanding applications such as home-based phantom limb pain therapy and precise prosthesis control.
The TextrodeMisc project addressed this gap by developing textile-integrated, gel-free electrode matrices specifically tailored for people with limb loss. Its overall objective is to create a reusable “textrode” band that combines three properties: strong and comfortable adhesion to the skin, stable electrical performance over many use and wash cycles, and ease of self-application without clinical assistance. By achieving these goals, the project made advanced sEMG-based therapies and prosthetic control completely self-administered and more practical in everyday life rather than only in specialised laboratories or hospitals.
To reach this objective, the project brought together advanced materials science, smart textile engineering, and prosthetics. On the materials side, it explored new combinations of soft elastomers and high-conductivity nanomaterials such as MXenes, together with bio-inspired surface structures. These tiny patterns were designed to increase the actual contact area with the skin and to create a gentle “grip” without the use of aggressive adhesives. In parallel, eco-friendly interfacial chemistries were developed to strengthen the link between the sensing layer and the textile substrate, so that performance was maintained stretching, bending, and laundering.
On the textile and device side, these improved electrodes were arranged in configurable matrices that can capture detailed patterns of muscle activity on the residual limb. The matrices were designed to work with existing high-density sEMG hardware, but in a format that users can don and align themselves. This requires careful attention not only to electrical performance, but also to comfort, fit, and the practical realities of putting on and taking off the device every day.
The pathway to impact progressed from laboratory benchmarks to human-centred evaluation. The project first established transparent test methods for adhesion, washability and skin–electrode impedance, so that different designs can be compared fairly. Then, prototypes were evaluated in controlled sEMG recordings on healthy volunteers. In this way, the technical work ensured that the textrode matrix responds to real needs and constraints in home and clinical environments.
The project outcome delivered several layers of impact. For individuals, more comfortable and reliable electrodes could make home-based phantom limb pain treatment and prosthesis training easier to sustain, improving quality of life and autonomy. For healthcare systems, reusable, wash-durable textile electrodes can reduce reliance on single-use consumables and clinic-bound procedures, supporting a shift towards person-centred, decentralised care. For European industry and research, the project delivered open evaluation protocols, materials recipes and design concepts that can be adapted for other wearable applications, from sports and rehabilitation to long-term monitoring of chronic conditions. Finally, by prioritising reusability, bio-derived modifiers and safer processing routes, the work contributed to broader European ambitions around sustainable, digital health technologies.[
