Motion Sensing by a Highly Sensitive Nanogold Strain Sensor in a Biomimetic 3D Environment.

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces

Institute of Polymer Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4 Roosevelt Road, Taipei 106319, Taiwan.

Published: October 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Recent advancements in flexible electronics have shown their promise in biomedical applications, focusing on creating a new system for motion sensing in a 3D environment.
  • The system uses a chitosan-based self-healing gel matrix and a sensitive strain sensor made from a gold nanoparticle film on a polyurethane substrate, which can detect small motions like the beating of heart cells.
  • This innovative integration highlights the potential of flexible electronics in cardiac sensing and could lead to the development of advanced biomimetic devices in the future.

Article Abstract

Recent advancements in flexible electronics have highlighted their potential in biomedical applications, primarily due to their human-friendly nature. This study introduces a new flexible electronic system designed for motion sensing in a biomimetic three-dimensional (3D) environment. The system features a self-healing gel matrix (chitosan-based hydrogel) that effectively mimics the dynamics of the extracellular matrix (ECM), and is integrated with a highly sensitive thin-film resistive strain sensor, which is fabricated by incorporating a cross-linked gold nanoparticle (GNP) thin film as the active conductive layer onto a biocompatible microphase-separated polyurethane (PU) substrate through a clean, rapid, and high-precision contact printing method. The GNP-PU strain sensor demonstrates high sensitivity (a gauge factor of ∼50), good stability, and waterproofing properties. The feasibility of detecting small motion was evaluated by sensing the beating of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiomyocyte spheroids embedded in the gel matrix. The integration of these components exemplifies a proof-of-concept for using flexible electronics comprising self-healing hydrogel and thin-film nanogold in cardiac sensing and offers promising insights into the development of next-generation biomimetic flexible electronic devices.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11503636PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c08105DOI Listing

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