Abstract:Conductive hydrogel combined with Ag/AgCl electrode is widely used in the acquisition of bio-signals. However, the high adhesiveness of current commercial hydrogel causes human skin allergies and pruritus easily after wearing hydrogel for electrodes for a long time. In this paper, a novel conductive hydrogel with good mechanical and conductive performance was prepared using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles. A cyclic freezing-thawing method was employed under processing conditions of −40 • C (8 h) and 20 • C (4 h) separately for three cycles in sequence until a strong conductive hydrogel, namely, PVA/PEG/GO gel, was obtained. Characterization (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, scanning electron microscopy) results indicated that the assembled hydrogel was successfully prepared with a three-dimensional network structure and, thereafter, the high strength and elasticity due to the complete polymeric net formed by dense hydrogen bonds in the freezing process. The as-made PVA/PEG/GO hydrogel was then composited with nonwoven fabric for electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes. The ECG acquisition data indicated that the prepared hydrogel has good electro-conductivity and can obtain stable ECG signals for humans in a static state and in motion (with a small amount of drift). A comparison of results indicated that the prepared PVA/PEG/GO gel obtained the same quality of ECG signals with commercial conductive gel with fewer cases of allergies and pruritus in volunteer after six hours of wear.

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Like the water responsive shape memory (SM) effect of β-keratin bird feathers, α-keratin hairs either existing broadly in nature are found responsive to many types of coupled stimuli in SM behaviors. In this article, α-keratin hairs were investigated for the combined stimuli of thermo-solvent, solvent-solvent, and UV (radiation)-reductant sensitive SM abilities. The related netpoints and switches from the hair molecular networks were identified. The experimental results showed that α-keratin hairs manifested a higher ability of shape fixation under thermal stimulus followed with the stimuli of solvent and UV-radiation. Shape recovery from the hair with a temporarily fixed shape showed a higher recovery ability using solvent than the stimuli of heat and UV-radiation. The effects of coupled stimuli on hair's shape fixation and recovery and on variations of the crystal, disulfide, and hydrogen bonds were studied systematically. A structural network model was thereafter proposed to interpret the multi-coupled stimuli sensitive SM of α-keratin hair. This original study is expected to provide inspiration for exploring other natural fibers to reveal related smart functions and for making more types of remarkable adapted synthetic materials.

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