Polypyrrole/Agarose-Based Electronically Conductive and Reversibly Restorable Hydrogel

Abstract

Conductive hydrogels are a class of composite materials that consist of hydrated and conducting polymers. Due to the mechanical similarity to biointerfaces such as human skin, conductive hydrogels have been primarily utilized as bioelectrodes, specifically neuroprosthetic electrodes, in an attempt to replace metallic electrodes by enhancing the mechanical properties and long-term stability of the electrodes within living organisms. Here, we report a conductive, smart hydrogel, which is thermoplastic and self-healing owing to its unique properties of reversible liquefaction and gelation in response to thermal stimuli. In addition, we demonstrated that our conductive hydrogel could be utilized to fabricate bendable, stretchable, and patternable electrodes directly on human skin. The excellent mechanical and thermal properties of our hydrogel make it potentially useful in a variety of biomedical applications such as electronic skin.