Conductive Hydrogels and Elastomer Nanocomposites for Soft Bioelectronics

Recent advances in soft bioelectronics have garnered significant attention, largely due to their potential applications in personalized, bio-integrated healthcare devices. The mechanical mismatch between conventional electronic devices and soft human tissues or organs often presents various challenges, such as low signal-to-noise ratios in biosensing, inflammation or excessive immune responses near implanted devices, and inadequate electrical or chemical stimulation in feedback therapies. To address these issues, novel materials for ultra-flexible and stretchable electronic devices have been developed, as their mechanical and material properties are more compatible with in vivo cellular environments, and these devices hold great potential for solving the aforementioned challenges. Particularly, in the development of such bioelectronic devices, nanomaterials and their composites with hydrogels and elastomers have been actively researched. This talk presents unconventional soft electronic materials and device fabrication strategies, as well as their applications to diagnosing and treating major diseases including cardiovascular diseases. The integration of two different types of soft conductive materials and the incorporation of wireless power supply technologies in the unconventional bioelectronic platform offer additional opportunities. Key challenges in the future technological roadmap and potential technological solutions will also be briefly discussed. These efforts in developing unconventional materials and bioelectronic devices are expected to contribute significantly to addressing unresolved issues in clinical medicine.