Bio‐inspired ionic skins for smart medicine

Abstract

Ionic skins are developed to mimic the mechanical properties and functions of natural skins. They have demonstrated substantial advantages to serve as the crucial interface to bridge the gap between humans and machines. The first‐generation ionic skin is a stretchable capacitor comprising hydrogels as the ionic conductors and elastomers as the dielectrics, and realizes pressure and strain sensing through the measurement of the capacitance. Subsequent advances have been made to improve the mechanical properties of ionic skins and import diverse functions. For example, ultrahigh stretchability, strong interfacial adhesion, self‐healing, moisturizing ability, and various sensing capabilities have been achieved separately or simultaneously. Most ionic skins are attached to natural skins to monitor bio‐electrical signals continuously. Ionic skins have also been found with significant potential to serve as a smart drug‐containing reservoir, which can release drugs spatially, temporally, and in a controllable way. Herein, this review focuses on the design and fabrication of ionic skins, and their applications related to smart medicine. Moreover, challenges and opportunities are also discussed. It is hoped that the development of bio‐inspired ionic skins will provide a paradigm shift for self‐diagnosis and healthcare.

High-performing fiber electrodes based on a gold-shelled silver nanowire framework for bioelectronics

“…4 To ensure that this bridge is stable and reliable, fiber electrodes should possess the qualities of high electrical conductivity for signal transmission efficiency, high flexibility to match with soft tissue, and biocompatibility. [5][6][7][8] For these requirements, metal wires are the most conductive, but they are highly rigid. 9 Therefore, new strategies have been developed to form composites of metal nanomaterials with low-modulus polymers, such as compositing silver nanowires (AgNWs) with elastomer fibers to obtain flexibility.…”

“…4 To ensure that this bridge is stable and reliable, fiber electrodes should possess the qualities of high electrical conductivity for signal transmission efficiency, high flexibility to match with soft tissue, and biocompatibility. 5–8…”