Skin-inspired antibacterial conductive hydrogels customized for wireless flexible sensor and collaborative wound healing

Abstract

With the rise of bioelectronic sensors, E-skin integrated systems capable of maintaining high performance for monitoring human motion under repeated stretching and deformation conditions have attracted extensive attention. However, injuries are inevitable in life, which limits the continuous monitoring of the entire system. To solve this dilemma, a core–shell structured silk-fibroin@AgNP nanoparticle (SF@AgNP NPs) and MXene nanosheet functionalized hydrogel with excellent antibacterial and balanced mechanical properties were designed and assembled to build a novel flexible, multifunctional, and human motion monitoring bio-system promoting wound healing. The resulting hydrogel exhibited comprehensive mechanical performance and dual self-recovery ability, as well as extreme adhesion ability and reversible bonding behavior to various materials. In addition, the as-assembled sensor shows incomparable dual-sensing performance (linear ultra-sensitivity of 860.6 kPa⁻¹) and a wide sensing range, which could repeatedly and closely adhere to human skin to detect large-scale and subtle human behaviors. Furthermore, due to the synergistic effect of antibacterial properties combined with electrical stimulation, hydrogel could provide a strong angiogenesis effect and enhanced collagen production on diabetic wounds for rapid wound healing, thus effectively protecting high-risk individuals. In this way, it is believed that the hydrogels designed here with all-in-one multifunctionality hold great promise in wearable devices and bioelectronics.