Triple crosslinking conductive hydrogels with digitally printable and outstanding mechanical stability for high-resolution conformable bioelectronics
Elahe Parvini, Abdollah Hajalilou, Pedro Alhais Lopes, Miguel Soares Maranha Tiago, Anı́bal T. de Almeida, Mahmoud Tavakoli
Abstract
'-methylene-bis-acrylamide) and LAPONITE®, thus resulting in tough composite hydrogels. The inclusion of LAPONITE® into the hydrogel network improved its electrical conductivity, adhesion, digital printability, and its mechanical properties, (>6× compared to the same hydrogel without LAPONITE®). As electrodes in the electrocardiogram, the signal-to-noise ratio was surprisingly higher than the medical-grade Ag/AgCl electrodes, which are applied for monitoring muscles, heart, respiration, and body joint angle through EMG, ECG, and bioimpedance measurements. The results obtained prove that such digitally printed conductive and tough hydrogels can be used as potential electrodes and sensors in practical applications in the next generation of printed wearable computing devices.