Liquid Metal‐Based Biosensors: Fundamentals and Applications

Abstract

Biosensors are analytical tools for monitoring various parameters related to living organisms, such as humans and plants. Liquid metals (LMs) have emerged as a promising new material for biosensing applications in recent years. LMs have attractive physical and chemical properties such as deformability, high thermal and electrical conductivity, low volatility, and low viscosity. LM‐based biosensors represent a new strategy in biosensing particularly for wearable and real‐time sensing. While early demonstrations of LM biosensors focus on monitoring physical parameters such as strain, motion, and temperature, recent examples show LM can be an excellent sensing material for biochemical and biomolecular detection as well. In this review, the recent progress of LM‐based biosensors for personalized healthcare and disease monitoring via both physical and biochemical signaling is survey. It is started with a brief introduction of the fundamentals of biosensors and LMs, followed by a discussion of different mechanisms by which LM can transduce biological or physiological signals. Next, it is reviewed example LM‐based biosensors that have been used in real biological systems, ranging from real‐time on‐skin physiological monitoring to target‐specific biochemical detection. Finally, the challenges and future directions of LM‐integrated biosensor platforms is discussed.

Diels–Alder Network Blends as Self-Healing Encapsulants for Liquid Metal-Based Stretchable Electronics

“…Liquid metal-based stretchable electronics have received tremendous attention in recent years as a result of increasing demand for soft electronics with broad applications in several fields, such as soft robotics, smart wearables, and performance/health monitoring systems. , Traditional conductors such as copper or even conductive polymer composites fail to meet the main desired objectives in terms of either flexibility and stretchability or high electrical conductivity. Several types of liquid metals and alloys are being used to create stretchable electronics. , Gallium and several of its alloys, such as Galinstan and EGaIn, are popular choices as liquid metals at or near room temperature (low melting point).…”