Biodegradable Materials for Sustainable Health Monitoring Devices.

The recent advent of biodegradable materials has offered huge opportunity to transform healthcare technologies by enabling sensors that degrade naturally after use. The implantable electronic systems made from such materials eliminate the need for extraction or reoperation, minimize chronic inflammatory responses, and hence offer attractive propositions for future biomedical technology. The eco-friendly sensor systems developed from degradable materials could also help mitigate some of the major environmental issues by reducing the volume of electronic or medical waste produced and, in turn, the carbon footprint. With this background, herein we present a comprehensive overview of the structural and functional biodegradable materials that have been used for various biodegradable or bioresorbable electronic devices. The discussion focuses on the dissolution rates and degradation mechanisms of materials such as natural and synthetic polymers, organic or inorganic semiconductors, and hydrolyzable metals. The recent trend and examples of biodegradable or bioresorbable materials-based sensors for body monitoring, diagnostic, and medical therapeutic applications are also presented. Lastly, key technological challenges are discussed for clinical application of biodegradable sensors, particularly for implantable devices with wireless data and power transfer. Promising perspectives for the advancement of future generation of biodegradable sensor systems are also presented.

Graphene Based Low Voltage Field Effect Transistor Coupled with Biodegradable Piezoelectric Material Based Dynamic Pressure Sensor.

Pressure sensors form the basic building block for realization of an electronic or tactile skin used in prothesis, robotics, and other similar applications. This paper presents a device consisting of biodegradable piezoelectric material based dynamic pressure sensor coupled with a graphene field-effect-transistor (GFET) operated at very low voltage (50 mV). The device has a biodegradable ß-glycine/chitosan composite based metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure connected with GFET in an extended gate configuration. The developed device shows a sensitivity of 2.70 × 10-4 kPa-1 for a pressure range of 5-20 kPa and 7.56 × 10-4 kPa-1 for a pressure range between 20 and 35 kPa. A distinctive feature of the presented device is its very low operation voltage, which offers a significant advantage toward the development of energy efficient large-area electronic skin. Further, the biodegradability of piezoelectric material makes the presented sensors useful in terms of reduced electronic waste, which is currently another growing area of interest.

A Wearable Supercapacitor Based on Conductive PEDOT:PSS-Coated Cloth and a Sweat Electrolyte.

A sweat-based flexible supercapacitor (SC) for self-powered smart textiles and wearable systems is presented. The developed SC uses sweat as the electrolyte and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) as the active electrode. With PEDOT:PSS coated onto cellulose/polyester cloth, the SC shows specific capacitance of 8.94 F g-1 (10 mF cm-2 ) at 1 mV s-1 . With artificial sweat, the energy and power densities of the SC are 1.36 Wh kg-1 and 329.70 W kg-1 , respectively for 1.31 V and its specific capacitance is 5.65 F g-1 . With real human sweat the observed energy and power densities are 0.25 Wh kg-1 , and 30.62 W kg-1 , respectively. The SC performance is evaluated with different volumes of sweat (20, 50, and 100 µL), bending radii (10, 15, 20 mm), charging/discharging stability (4000 cycles), and washability. With successful on-body testing, the first demonstration of the suitability of a sweat-based SC for self-powered cloth-based sensors to monitor sweat salinity is presented. With attractive performance and the use of body fluids, the presented approach is a safe and sustainable route to meet the power requirements in wearable systems.

Glycine-Chitosan-Based Flexible Biodegradable Piezoelectric Pressure Sensor.

This paper presents flexible pressure sensors based on free-standing and biodegradable glycine-chitosan piezoelectric films. Fabricated by the self-assembly of biological molecules of glycine within a water-based chitosan solution, the piezoelectric films consist of a stable spherulite structure of ß-glycine (size varying from a few millimeters to 1 cm) embedded in an amorphous chitosan polymer. The polymorphic phase of glycine crystals in chitosan, evaluated by X-ray diffraction, confirms formation of a pure ferroelectric phase of glycine (ß-phase). Our results show that a simple solvent-casting method can be used to prepare a biodegradable ß-glycine/chitosan-based piezoelectric film with sensitivity (∼2.82 ± 0.2 mV kPa-1) comparable to those of nondegradable commercial piezoelectric materials. The measured capacitance of the ß-glycine/chitosan film is in the range from 0.26 to 0.12 nF at a frequency range from 100 Hz to 1 MHz, and its dielectric constant and loss factor are 7.7 and 0.18, respectively, in the high impedance range under ambient conditions. The results suggest that the glycine-chitosan composite is a promising new biobased piezoelectric material for biodegradable sensors for applications in wearable biomedical diagnostics.