Abstract:Advances in bioelectronics have great potential to address unsolvable biomedical problems in the cardiovascular system. By using poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLC) that encapsulates the liquid metal to make flexible and bio-degradable electrical circuitry, we develop an electronic blood vessel that can integrate flexible electronics with three layers of blood vessel cells, to mimic and go beyond the natural blood vessel. It can improve the endothelization process through electrical stimulation and can ena… Show more
“…Recent study from Cheng et al. has looked at cardiovascular diseases, which is the number one cause of the mortality, for developing an implantable “electronic blood vessel” ( Cheng et al., 2020 ). During the surgery of cardiovascular diseases, there is a great demand for a small-diameter (<6 mm) tissue-engineered blood vessel that provides both a mechanical support and assists its regeneration by facilitating the endothelialization process of tissues after surgery ( Seifu et al., 2013 ).…”
“…LM-based wearable sensors and materials especially exhibit very unique mechanical ( Kazem et al., 2018 ), electrical ( Fassler and Majidi, 2015 ), thermal ( Bartlett et al., 2017 ), optical ( Pan et al., 2018 ), electromagnetic ( Yao et al., 2020 ), and dielectric( Pan et al., 2019 ) properties compared with other soft or conductive materials alone while maintaining mechanical compliance, making electronics more accessible to human body, clothing, and even tissues ( Cheng et al., 2020 ; Li et al., 2020b ; Pan et al., 2020 ; Ren et al., 2020 ; Wang et al., 2020 ). Depending on fabrication approaches, the conductors composed of the same materials composition can be changed dramatically.…”
Summary
Soft wearable electronics are rapidly developing through exploration of new materials, fabrication approaches, and design concepts. Although there have been many efforts for decades, a resurgence of interest in liquid metals (LMs) for sensing and wiring functional properties of materials in soft wearable electronics has brought great advances in wearable electronics and materials. Various forms of LMs enable many routes to fabricate flexible and stretchable sensors, circuits, and functional wearables with many desirable properties. This review article presents a systematic overview of recent progresses in LM-enabled wearable electronics that have been achieved through material innovations and the discovery of new fabrication approaches and design architectures. We also present applications of wearable LM technologies for physiological sensing, activity tracking, and energy harvesting. Finally, we discuss a perspective on future opportunities and challenges for wearable LM electronics as this field continues to grow.
“…Recent study from Cheng et al. has looked at cardiovascular diseases, which is the number one cause of the mortality, for developing an implantable “electronic blood vessel” ( Cheng et al., 2020 ). During the surgery of cardiovascular diseases, there is a great demand for a small-diameter (<6 mm) tissue-engineered blood vessel that provides both a mechanical support and assists its regeneration by facilitating the endothelialization process of tissues after surgery ( Seifu et al., 2013 ).…”
“…LM-based wearable sensors and materials especially exhibit very unique mechanical ( Kazem et al., 2018 ), electrical ( Fassler and Majidi, 2015 ), thermal ( Bartlett et al., 2017 ), optical ( Pan et al., 2018 ), electromagnetic ( Yao et al., 2020 ), and dielectric( Pan et al., 2019 ) properties compared with other soft or conductive materials alone while maintaining mechanical compliance, making electronics more accessible to human body, clothing, and even tissues ( Cheng et al., 2020 ; Li et al., 2020b ; Pan et al., 2020 ; Ren et al., 2020 ; Wang et al., 2020 ). Depending on fabrication approaches, the conductors composed of the same materials composition can be changed dramatically.…”
Summary
Soft wearable electronics are rapidly developing through exploration of new materials, fabrication approaches, and design concepts. Although there have been many efforts for decades, a resurgence of interest in liquid metals (LMs) for sensing and wiring functional properties of materials in soft wearable electronics has brought great advances in wearable electronics and materials. Various forms of LMs enable many routes to fabricate flexible and stretchable sensors, circuits, and functional wearables with many desirable properties. This review article presents a systematic overview of recent progresses in LM-enabled wearable electronics that have been achieved through material innovations and the discovery of new fabrication approaches and design architectures. We also present applications of wearable LM technologies for physiological sensing, activity tracking, and energy harvesting. Finally, we discuss a perspective on future opportunities and challenges for wearable LM electronics as this field continues to grow.
“…An eutectic GaIn alloy-based LM with a low melting point delivers liquidus fluidity and metallic conductivity at room temperature, allowing for more flexible and reconfigurable electronics [16]. It is recognized as low toxicity, biosafety material both in vitro and in vivo, and its environmental friendliness is reported with high recycle efficiency [24][25][26][27]. By integrating the LM-based conductive pattern with ultrathin PET film, we fabricate an epidermal device that can be easily attached to the philtrum.…”
Real-time wireless respiratory monitoring and biomarker analysis provide an attractive vision for noninvasive telemedicine such as the timely prevention of respiratory arrest or for early diagnoses of chronic diseases. Lightweight, wearable respiratory sensors are in high demand as they meet the requirement of portability in digital healthcare management. Meanwhile, high-performance sensing material plays a crucial role for the precise sensing of specific markers in exhaled air, which represents a complex and rather humid environment. Here, we present a liquid metal-based flexible electrode coupled with SnS2 nanomaterials as a wearable gas-sensing device, with added Bluetooth capabilities for remote respiratory monitoring and diagnoses. The flexible epidermal device exhibits superior skin compatibility and high responsiveness (1092%/ppm), ultralow detection limits (1.32 ppb), and a good selectivity of NO gas at ppb-level concentrations. Taking advantage of the fast recovery kinetics of SnS2 responding to H2O molecules, it is possible to accurately distinguish between different respiratory patterns based on the amount of water vapor in the exhaled air. Furthermore, based on the different redox types of H2O and NO molecules, the electric signal is reversed once the exhaled NO concentration exceeds a certain threshold that may indicate the onset of conditions like asthma, thus providing an early warning system for potential lung diseases. Finally, by integrating the wearable device into a wireless cloud-based multichannel interface, we provide a proof-of-concept that our device could be used for the simultaneous remote monitoring of several patients with respiratory diseases, a crucial field in future digital healthcare management.
Human body tissues such as muscle, blood vessels, tendon/ligaments, and nerves have fiber‐like fascicle morphologies, where ordered organization of cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) within the bundles in specific 3D manners orchestrates cells and ECM to provide tissue functions. Through engineering cell fibers (which are fibers containing living cells) as living building blocks with the help of emerging “bottom‐up” biomanufacturing technologies, it is now possible to reconstitute/recreate the fiber‐like fascicle morphologies and their spatiotemporally specific cell‐cell/cell‐ECM interactions in vitro, thereby enabling the modeling, therapy, or repair of these fibrous tissues. In this article, a concise review is provided of the “bottom‐up” biomanufacturing technologies and materials usable for fabricating cell fibers, with an emphasis on electrospinning that can effectively and efficiently produce thin cell fibers and with properly designed processes, 3D cell‐laden structures that mimic those of native fibrous tissues. The importance and applications of cell fibers as models, therapeutic platforms, or analogs/replacements for tissues for areas such as drug testing, cell therapy, and tissue engineering are highlighted. Challenges, in terms of biomimicry of high‐order hierarchical structures and complex dynamic cellular microenvironments of native tissues, as well as opportunities for cell fibers in a myriad of biomedical applications, are discussed.
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