The field of soft wearable bioelectronics requires materials that are flexible, stretchable, biocompatible, and capable of being used over long durations. Although polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is one of the most commonly used substrates for these devices due to its biomimetic properties compared to biological tissues, its intrinsic hydrophobicity causes it to underperform in biological environments. In this work, a hydrophilic, stretchable PDMS electrospun fibrous mat is developed to overcome this limitation by incorporating the amphiphilic polymer polyethylene glycol block copolymer (PEG‐BCP) into the porous PDMS matrix. The nonwoven hydrophilic silicone mat shows apparent improvement in stable hydrophilicity, indicated by a significant decrease in water contact angle (from 125° to 51°) for 7 days, along with improved cellular adhesion and enhanced breathability. The PDMS‐PEG fibers show higher cell proliferation than unmodified PDMS fibers, suggesting potential for long‐term biological applications. The fibrous mat also maintains its structural integrity under mechanical stress, demonstrated by a stretchability of up to 308.8% strain with reduced adhesion forces. This novel material surpasses previous PDMS fibrous substrates and enables electroless gold plating, providing a promising future for wearable fibrous electronics and biomedical devices featuring hydrophilic, stretchable, conductive, and biointegrated materials.
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Skin‐Inspired Porous Mesh Bioelectronics with Built‐In Multifunctionality for Concurrently Monitoring Heart Electrical and Mechanical Functions
The skin exhibits nonlinear mechanics, which is initially soft and stiffens rapidly as being stretched to prevent large deformation‐induced injuries. Developing skin‐interfaced bioelectronics with skin‐inspired nonlinear mechanical behavior, together with multiple other desired features (breathable, antibacterial, and sticky), is desirable yet challenging. Herein, this study reports the design, fabrication, and biomedical application of porous mesh bioelectronics that can simultaneously achieve these features. On the one hand, porous serpentine meshes of polyimide (PI) are designed and fabricated under the guidance of theoretical simulations to provide skin‐like nonlinear mechanics and high breathability. On the other hand, ultrasoft, sticky, and antibacterial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is developed through epsilon polylysine (ε‐PL) modifications, which are currently lacking in the field. Here,ε‐PL‐modified PDMS is spray‐coated on PI meshes to form the core–shell structures without blocking their pores to offer ultrasoft, sticky, and antibacterial skin interfaces. And rationally designed porous hybrid meshes can not only retain skin‐like nonlinear mechanical properties but also enable the integration of both soft and hard bioelectronic components for various healthcare applications. As the exemplar example, this study integrates soft silver nanowires (AgNWs) based electrophysiological sensors and rigid commercial accelerometers on multifunctional porous meshes for concurrently monitoring heart electrical and mechanical functions to provide comprehensive information on the evolving heart status.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2045101
- PAR ID:
- 10484410
- Publisher / Repository:
- WILEY
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Volume:
- 33
- Issue:
- 41
- ISSN:
- 1616-301X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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