A reusable, healable, and biocompatible PEDOT:PSS hydrogel-based electrical bioadhesive interface for high-resolution electromyography monitoring and time–frequency analysis

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2024-06, Vol.490, p.151454, Article 151454
• Main Authors: Wan, Rongtai, Yu, Jiawen, Quan, Ziyi, Ma, Hude, Li, Jinhao, Tian, Fajuan, Wang, Wen, Sun, Yajuan, Liu, Junyan, Gao, Dian, Xu, Jingkun, Lu, Baoyang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electrical bioadhesive interface; Electromyography monitoring; PEDOT:PSS hydrogel; Repeatable adhesion; Self-healing
• ISSN: 1385-8947
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2024.151454

•High performance PEDOT:PSS-based reusable EBI is firstly designed based on dynamic noncovalent interactions.•As-formed reusable EBI simultaneously exhibits superior reusable adhesion, rapid self-healing, stable electrical and electrochemical properties.•Excellent biocompatibility ensures the safety of reusable EBI integrated with human skin.•Reusable EBI with higher EMG signal recording capability than commercial electrodes after 200 cycles and high resolution time–frequency domain distribution characterization. As the most ideal interface between bioelectronic devices and biological tissues, the electrical bioadhesive interface (EBI) holds significant potential for various applications, including soft bioelectronics, wearable devices, and electrophysiological signal monitoring. However, most current EBIs are disposable products that lack repeatable adhesion and self-healing properties, thus hindering practical applications. Herein, we develop a reusable EBI by incorporating a dynamic non-covalent interaction enhancer polydopamine (PDA) and conductive PEDOT:PSS into an adhesive hydrogel matrix polyacrylamide (PAM). The EBI exhibits intriguing overall electrical and mechanical properties, including high conductivity (5.57 S m−1), tissue-like Young’s modulus (2.7 kPa), low interfacial impedance (1 kΩ), and excellent adhesion strength (46.45 ± 1.75 kPa on porcine skin) with excellent retention (87 %) after 200 adhering/detaching cycles, high self-healing efficiency of 94.11 %, and outstanding biocompatibility in HDF-a and HaCaT cell models. Benefiting from these superior properties, we further demonstrate the fabrication and application of an EBI-based reusable electromyography monitoring patch (EMP). The reusable EMP enables high-resolution electromyography signal monitoring capability with a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 30.05 dB than commercial electrodes (12.06 dB). Remarkably, such reusable EMP maintains very stable SNR of 21.82 dB after 200 adhering/detaching cycles (3.8 times higher than commercial electrodes, 5.74 dB after 30 cycles), and showcases typical time and frequency-domain characteristics. These findings demonstrate a promising reusable EMP to enhance the accuracy and convenience of electromyography monitoring.