A conductive self-healing hydrogel to create flexible sensors:
Recent advancements in the field of electronics have enabled the creation of smaller and increasingly sophisticated devices, including wearable technologies, biosensors, medical implants, and soft robots. Most of these technologies are based on stretchy materials with electronic properties.
While material scientists have already introduced a wide range of flexible materials that could be used to create electronics, many of these materials are fragile and can be easily damaged. As damage to materials can result in their failure, while also compromising the overall functioning of the system they are integrated in, several existing soft and conductive materials can end up being unreliable and unsuitable for large-scale implementations.
Researchers at Harbin University of Science and Technology in China recently developed a new conductive and self-healing hydrogel that could be used to create flexible sensors for wearables, robots or other devices. This material and its composition was outlined in the Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices.
[...] In the future, the hydrogel created by this team of researchers could be used to develop a wide range of other sensors and wearable electronics, such as sensors that can detect human motion or medical devices that monitor specific biological signals. In addition, their work could pave the way for the development of similar flexible and conductive hydrogels with self-healing properties.
Journal Reference:
Xiaoming Wang et al, Constructing conductive and mechanical strength self-healing hydrogel for flexible sensor, Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.jsamd.2023.100563
« Multi-cancer Blood Test Shows Real Promise in NHS Study | New York's Skyscrapers are Causing it to Sink – What Can be Done About it? »
Related Stories
MIT News reports: MIT engineers have developed a soft, printable, metal-free electrode.
A new Jell-O-like material could replace metals as electrical interfaces for pacemakers, cochlear implants, and other electronic implants.
Implantable electrodes are predominantly made from rigid metals that are electrically conductive by nature. But over time, metals can aggravate tissues, causing scarring and inflammation that in turn can degrade an implant's performance.
Now, MIT engineers have developed a metal-free, Jell-O-like material that is as soft and tough as biological tissue and can conduct electricity similarly to conventional metals. The material can be made into a printable ink, which the researchers patterned into flexible, rubbery electrodes. The new material, which is a type of high-performance conducting polymer hydrogel, may one day replace metals as functional, gel-based electrodes, with the look and feel of biological tissue.
"This material operates like metal electrodes but is made from gels that are similar to our bodies, and with similar water content," says Hyunwoo Yuk SM '16, PhD '21, co-founder of SanaHeal, a medical device startup. "It's like an artificial tissue or nerve."
"We believe that for the first time, we have a tough, robust, Jell-O-like electrode that can potentially replace metal to stimulate nerves and interface with the heart, brain, and other organs in the body," adds Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and of civil and environmental engineering at MIT.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 07, @01:07PM (3 children)
O.K. so I'm sure this is new in some aspect, but 30+ years ago I was wearing hydrogel ECG electrodes and they seemed plenty self-healing.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday June 07, @02:04PM (2 children)
The ECG electrodes connect a wire conductor to the skin.
The new development is, as I understand it, that 1. they can contain miniature electronic devices 2. the electronic devices can me heavier than has hitherto been the case, and 3. minor damage is self repairing.
For example, you could wear a reasonably discrete heart monitor for an extended period of time with no wire attachments, perhaps using bluetooth to connect to a recording device that was worn on your belt or kept in your pocket.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 07, @02:34PM (1 child)
>a reasonably discrete heart monitor for an extended period of time with no wire attachments
Cool, although heart monitors work on electrical potential differences and a single point of contact isn't a great way to read potential differences, so at least one wire to a somewhat distant point on the skin would be required - unless the hydrogel can have an insulating barrier and do the potential reading across a very short distance...
The easiest ECG readings to amplify and separate from background noise (CMRR) are long distance, like between your left hand and your right hand.
It would be nifty if they could run a 256 lead EEG with wireless leads, but the need for a ground reference kinda kills that idea.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday June 07, @02:57PM
Fair cop - it wasn't the best example that I made up on the spur of the moment, but it conveyed the differences I think.