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Biocompatible polysaccharide ionic hydrogel as ultra-stretchable and multifunctional wearable sensor

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Abstract

Due to their promising applications in health monitoring, wearable flexible sensors based on hydrogel have gained considerable attention as modern medicine advances. However, it is still challenging for hydrogel-based wearable flexible sensors to be integrated with high stretchability, multifunctionality, and biocompatibility. Herein, we designed novel flexible multifunctional sensors based on ionic conductive double-network (DN) hydrogels composed of poly (acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (P(AM-co-AAc)), sodium alginate (SA), and calcium chloride (CaCl2) by simple two-step method of copolymerization and soaking. Abundant carboxyl groups on SA and P(AM-co-AAc) chains and their capacity to bind with Ca2+ were utilized to design a double network, providing the hydrogels with high stretchability and toughness. Ca2+ endowed the hydrogels with enhanced conductivity and sensitivity, while P(AM-co-AAc) enabled the hydrogels to respond to multi-stimuli. The SA/P(AM-co-AAc)/Ca2+ hydrogels presented outstanding mechanical properties (elongation at break of 2626%, tensile strength of 372 kPa), great sensitivity (gauge factor up to 7.1), and excellent durability (1000 stretching-releasing cycles). It could detect human movements, touch, physiology (temperature and sweat), pH changes, and organic solvents. Besides, the hydrogel sensors displayed great biocompatibility. Therefore, this work extends the design and preparation of highly stretchable and multifunctional hydrogels to facilitate the applications of skin-friendly wearable sensors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Undergraduate Training Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (202110288103).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Soft Chemistry and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Yuchen Zhou, Tianyi Dai, Yaqi Cheng, Qingchen Deng, Xueyu Li & Hongbing Jia

  2. School of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 211166, China

    Hao Wu

  3. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Wenjiao Han

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  1. Yuchen Zhou
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Contributions

YZ contributed to conceptualization, methodology, data curation, software, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. TD contributed to methodology, data curation, and writing—review and editing. YC contributed to methodology, data curation, software,and writing—review and editing. QD contributed to methodology, data curation, and investigation. HW contributed to methodology, data curation, and software. WH contributed to methodology, data curation, and software. XL contributed to conceptualization, methodology, and data curation. HJ contributed to supervision, resources, project administration, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Hongbing Jia.

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Zhou, Y., Dai, T., Cheng, Y. et al. Biocompatible polysaccharide ionic hydrogel as ultra-stretchable and multifunctional wearable sensor. J Mater Sci 57, 16367–16382 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07635-5

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