Hydrogel–Elastomer Nanomembranes for Constructing Flexible Bioelectronic Interfaces

(1) Journal source: 

Nature Nanotechnology 

(2) Title: 

Hydrogel–elastomer‑based conductive nanomembranes for soft bioelectronics 

(3) Research rationale: 

In this work, a phase-transformable hydrogel-elastomer bilayer adhesive nanomembrane (THIN) is designed. To tackle the limitations of conventional flexible devices, namely poor conformal attachment to irregular soft tissues and difficult manipulation of ultrathin devices, an amphiphilic structural design together with an orthogonal solvent spin-coating strategy is used to prepare free-standing nanomembranes. The nanomembranes are integrated with organic electrochemical transistors to explore the interfacial matching between devices and biological tissues as well as the electrophysiological signal recording performance. 

(4) Material development

 ① Materials: Catechol-modified alginate hydrogel and selenophene-based semiconductor elastomer are employed to construct the bilayer nanomembrane THIN with a total thickness of 350 nm.

 ② Functions: The dry-state nanomembrane features high stiffness for easy pickup and handling. Upon hydration by body fluids, it undergoes instantaneous hard-to-soft phase transformation to achieve pressure-free conformal adhesion on tissues with complex curved surfaces. It exhibits mixed ionic-electronic conduction, deformation tolerance, and the capability to record electrophysiological signals from diverse tissues, accompanied by favorable interfacial mechanical stability and biocompatibility.

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