Conductive or Injectable Hydrogels for Conformal Tissue-Device Interfacing

Recent advances in soft electronics have attracted great attention due to its potential applications to personalized health-monitoring and point-of-care devices. The mechanical mismatch between conventional rigid electronic devices and soft human tissues oftentimes causes various issues, such as a low signal-to-noise ratio of biosensors, inflammations on the tissue interfacing with the bioelectronics, skin irritations in the case of long-term wearing of the device, and ineffective electrical stimulations and drug delivery in feedback therapies. Ultra-flexible and stretchable bioelectronic devices have a low system modulus and intrinsic softness, and have a potential to solve these issues. However, locally incomplete contacts are still found in skin-device interfacing and they reduce the sensing efficiency and therapeutic efficacy of the soft bioelectronics. Composites of polymers, nanomaterials, and hydrogels are particularly promising material candidates for solving such issues and achieving ideal biotic-abiotic interface. In this talk, the unique strategies in the synthesis of conductive or injectable hydrogels, their seamless integration with soft bioelectronics, and wearable and/or implantable device applications are presented. These efforts are expected to address unmet clinical challenges.