Self-healing conductive hydrogels based on alginate, gelatin and polypyrrole serve as a repairable circuit and a mechanical sensor

Ren, Kai; Cheng, Yu; Huang, C. C.; Chen, Rui; Wang, Zhao; Wei, Jie

doi:10.1039/c9tb01214a

Cited by 125 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…[ 56 ] CP‐functionalized ADA‐GEL hydrogels have been recently engineered with the focus on biosensor applications. [ 57 ] However, the challenge to provide suitable mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and highly defined structures to engineer advanced open‐porous biomaterial scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering of such conductive hydrogels still needs to be addressed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrically Conductive and 3D‐Printable Oxidized Alginate‐Gelatin Polypyrrole:PSS Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

Distler

Polley

Shi

et al. 2021

Adv Healthcare Materials

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Electroactive hydrogels can be used to influence cell response and maturation by electrical stimulation. However, hydrogel formulations which are 3D printable, electroactive, cytocompatible, and allow cell adhesion, remain a challenge in the design of such stimuli‐responsive biomaterials for tissue engineering. Here, a combination of pyrrole with a high gelatin‐content oxidized alginate‐gelatin (ADA‐GEL) hydrogel is reported, offering 3D‐printability of hydrogel precursors to prepare cytocompatible and electrically conductive hydrogel scaffolds. By oxidation of pyrrole, electroactive polypyrrole:polystyrenesulfonate (PPy:PSS) is synthesized inside the ADA‐GEL matrix. The hydrogels are assessed regarding their electrical/mechanical properties, 3D‐printability, and cytocompatibility. It is possible to prepare open‐porous scaffolds via bioplotting which are electrically conductive and have a higher cell seeding efficiency in scaffold depth in comparison to flat 2D hydrogels, which is confirmed via multiphoton fluorescence microscopy. The formation of an interpenetrating polypyrrole matrix in the hydrogel matrix increases the conductivity and stiffness of the hydrogels, maintaining the capacity of the gels to promote cell adhesion and proliferation. The results demonstrate that a 3D‐printable ADA‐GEL can be rendered conductive (ADA‐GEL‐PPy:PSS), and that such hydrogel formulations have promise for cell therapies, in vitro cell culture, and electrical‐stimulation assisted tissue engineering.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrically Conductive and 3D‐Printable Oxidized Alginate‐Gelatin Polypyrrole:PSS Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

Distler

Polley

Shi

et al. 2021

Adv Healthcare Materials

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“…It is worth mentioning that, although not defined explicitly as green sensing materials and devices, many reported examples are innately green and ecofriendly. [ 46,107,127,128 ] Nature has always been a source of inspiration for developing new functional materials. Therefore, turning to existing biological systems and materials that combine both degradability and self‐healing capabilities is highly attractive.…”

Section: Advanced Sensing Platforms Features and Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐Healing Soft Sensors: From Material Design to Implementation

2021

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The demand for interfacing electronics in everyday life is rapidly accelerating, with an ever‐growing number of applications in wearable electronics and electronic skins for robotics, prosthetics, and other purposes. Soft sensors that efficiently detect environmental or biological/physiological stimuli have been extensively studied due to their essential role in creating the necessary interfaces for these applications. Unfortunately, due to their natural softness, these sensors are highly sensitive to structural and mechanical damage. The integration of natural properties, such as self‐healing, into these systems should improve their reliability, stability, and long‐term performance. Recent studies on self‐healing soft sensors for varying chemical and physical parameters are herein reviewed. In addition, contemporary studies on material design, device structure, and fabrication methods for sensing platforms are also discussed. Finally, the main challenges and future perspectives in this field are introduced, while focusing on the most promising examples and directions already reported.

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“…Conductive polymer has good compatibility with hydrogel network, which enables self‐healing conductive hydrogels to have stable conductivity and play a positive role in enhancing hydrogel toughness and tensile properties. [ 108 ] Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are attractive as conductive fillers for hydrogels due to their high aspect ratio, conductivity and strength. CNTs in hydrogel networks provide efficient electron transport channels to achieve high conductivity of hydrogels, and the conductivity increases with the increase of the amount of CNTs added.…”

Section: Self‐healing Hydrogel Flexible Sensormentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible Self‐Repairing Materials for Wearable Sensing Applications: Elastomers and Hydrogels

Zhou

Dong

et al. 2020

Macromol. Rapid Commun.

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related operations, and destroy the operation of the whole equipment (system). Bao and his colleagues developed a novel self-healing and mechanical force-sensing flexible sensor using micro-structured elastomeric dielectrics, which served as a foundation to improve the stability and lifetime of flexible sensors. [8] Self-healing flexible materials can be divided into two categories, one is solvent-less or water-free after curing and high degree of polymerization of elastomers, such as polyamide, polyurethane, etc., the other is hydrogels, low degree of polymerization, structural cross-linking. In self-healing flexible elastomer sensors, the structure of elastomer is mostly linear structure or semi-cross-linked structure; the elastomer of cross-linked structure is poor flexibility and fragile due to its high degree of polymerization. The elasticity of semi-crosslinked structure has excellent resilience and great potential in the field of flexible flexural sensors. In the past two years, self-healing flexible hydrogels have attracted extensive attention due to their excellent stretchability and resilience, as well as outstanding performance in the preparation of sensors with high sensitivity and fast response. [9,10] Sensors with elastomers and hydrogels as flexible matrices face great difficulties in conductivity, which affects the sensitivity and stability of the sensors. Filling conductive materials is the most commonly method, in which organic conductive polymers (polyaniline, [11] polypyrrole [12]) are filled to construct conductive networks, and good interfacial compatibility results in uniform conductive polymer elastomers, but the inherent color fillers affect the transparency of flexible sensors, limiting their applications in the biomedical field. [13-17] Flexible materials filled with inorganic conductive particles (graphene, nano-silver wire) have high conductivity, but phase separation between filler and matrix usually reduces the tensile, toughness and fatigue resistance, and even affects the self-healing ability of flexible materials. Modified fillers are often required to improve affinity for flexible matrices and inhibit phase separation. However, many hydrogel matrices are intrinsically weak and cannot withstand cyclic loadings. [18] Although surface modified fillers can improve strength and toughness, it is difficult to compensate for the inherent weaknesses. For self-healing flexible elastomers, conductive flexible materials can still be endowed with conductivity by scraping or printing conductive particles on the Flexible pressure and strain sensors have great potential for applications in wearable and implantable devices, soft robots, and artificial skin. The introduction of self-healing performance has made a positive contribution to the lifetime and stability of flexible sensors. At present, many self-healing flexible sensors with high sensitivity have been developed to detect the signal of organism activity. The sensitivity, reliability, and stability of self-healing flexible sensors depend...

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Self-healing conductive hydrogels based on alginate, gelatin and polypyrrole serve as a repairable circuit and a mechanical sensor

Abstract: Polypyrrole/alginate–gelatin conductive hydrogels serve as a repairable circuit and a mechanical sensor.

Cited by 125 publications

References 46 publications

Electrically Conductive and 3D‐Printable Oxidized Alginate‐Gelatin Polypyrrole:PSS Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

Electrically Conductive and 3D‐Printable Oxidized Alginate‐Gelatin Polypyrrole:PSS Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

Self‐Healing Soft Sensors: From Material Design to Implementation

Flexible Self‐Repairing Materials for Wearable Sensing Applications: Elastomers and Hydrogels

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