Sweat-resistant bioelectronic skin sensor

Abstract

Bioelectronic skin sensors (BSSs) provide more opportunities for human health monitoring and therapy. However, most skin sensors suffer from detachment caused by weak adhesion of polymers in humid physiological environments, which severely limits their applications. Here, we report a sweat-resistant BSS (SRBSS) with high sensitivity to bioelectric signals and motion detection. This SRBSS not only exhibits strong adhesion to dry, oily, and sweaty human skin but also has a stable and sensitive electrical signal responsiveness. The low swelling behavior and anti-bacterial properties of the hydrogel enables its use as an anti-sweating electronic skin interface in devices for long-term real-time monitoring of bioelectric signals. In addition, the high stretchability (800% elongation), instant self-healing (<1 s), moisture-proof, and anti-freezing (−40°C) characteristics mean that hydrogel composites could be applied in wearable anti-sweating bioelectronic sensors in complex conditions for human-computer interactions, providing a new insight into the design of wearable electronic sensors.