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Highly conductive and adhesive wearable sensors based on PVA/PAM/SF/PEDOT:PSS double network hydrogels

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Abstract

In recent years, hydrogels had a wide range of applications in wearable devices, human health monitoring, or implantable sensors because of their good properties such as stretchability, conductivity, frost resistance, and transparency. However, the simultaneous integration of excellent mechanical properties and high electrical conductivity in a hydrogel sample still needs to be improved. In this work, silk fibroin (SF) and poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) were introduced into a poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(acrylic amide) (PVA/PAM) double-network hydrogel to prepare PVA/PAM/SF/PEDOT:PSS hydrogel electrolytes via a one-pot method. Adding SF also enhances the mechanical properties of the hydrogel, making it three times stronger than the PVA/PAM double-network hydrogel. The hydrogel is versatile, with a strain range of 1–300%, making it an ideal resistive sensor for monitoring body pressure. More importantly, due to the hydrogel’s adhesion strength of approximately 665.8 kPa, the hydrogel can adhere to other surfaces during the detection process, significantly reducing the signal loss due to insufficient adhesion. In addition, the hydrogel also exhibits excellent electrical conductivity, can sensitively detect human limb movement, and can be applied to flexible electronic products such as electronic skin and soft robots.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by The Intelligent medicine project of Chongqing Medical University (YJSZHYX202210).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medical Informatics, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Jiaqi Yang, Yanli Fan, Xinliang Xiong, Qifeng Jiang, Ping Li, Jie Jian & Longcong Chen

  2. Banan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Yanli Fan

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  1. Jiaqi Yang
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Contributions

The conception and design of the study were performed by YJQ and FYL. Material preparation and data collection were performed by FYL, LP, and JJ. Data analysis and the first draft of the manuscript were performed by FYL. Research suggestions were made by CLC, XXL, and JQF. Research supervision and funding were provided by LC, and all the authors commented on a previous version of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Longcong Chen.

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Yang, J., Fan, Y., Xiong, X. et al. Highly conductive and adhesive wearable sensors based on PVA/PAM/SF/PEDOT:PSS double network hydrogels. Appl. Phys. A 130, 157 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-024-07329-6

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