Design of Surfactant-Like Crosslinker—Photopatternable Conductive Hydrogels with Strong Adhesion to Hydrophobic Substrates

Conductive hydrogels are considered as promising materials for soft and stretchable biointerfaces due to their tissue-like mechanical properties and water-rich nature. However, delamination of hydrogel electrodes from hydrophobic encapsulants, commonly used to prevent external mechanical or chemical damages, greatly limits device performance and stability. Herein, I present a surfactant-like crosslinker (SLC) design as a universal strategy to stabilize conductive hydrogel networks onto hydrophobic materials. SLC not only reduces interfacial surface energy but also effectively forms tough interface with high lap-shear strength and long-term wet stable electrochemical performance. By photo-activating anchor of our crosslinker design, hydrogel devices can be patterned into various shapes and thicknesses, showing excellent stretchability and high conductivity. Furthermore, I demonstrate that our hydrogel bioelectronic devices can stably record electromyogram (EMG) signals on in vivo animal models without any failure of the devices.