Recent Advances in Electronic Skins with Multiple-Stimuli-Responsive and Self-Healing Abilities

Overview

Journal Materials (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Date 2022 Mar 10

PMID 35268894

Authors

Quanquan Guo

Xiaoyan Qiu

Xinxing Zhang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Wearable electronic skin (e-skin) has provided a revolutionized way to intelligently sense environmental stimuli, which shows prospective applications in health monitoring, artificial intelligence and prosthetics fields. Drawn inspiration from biological skins, developing e-skin with multiple stimuli perception and self-healing abilities not only enrich their bionic multifunctionality, but also greatly improve their sensory performance and functional stability. In this review, we highlight recent important developments in the material structure design strategy to imitate the fascinating functionalities of biological skins, including molecular synthesis, physical structure design, and special biomimicry engineering. Moreover, their specific structure-property relationships, multifunctional application, and existing challenges are also critically analyzed with representative examples. Furthermore, a summary and perspective on future directions and challenges of biomimetic electronic skins regarding function construction will be briefly discussed. We believe that this review will provide valuable guidance for readers to fabricate superior e-skin materials or devices with skin-like multifunctionalities and disparate characteristics.

Citing Articles

Self-rerouting sensor network for electronic skin resilient to severe damage.

Ozaki T, Ohta N, Fujiyoshi M Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):1196.

PMID: 39885178 PMC: 11782484. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56596-1.

Synergistic Self-Healing Enhancement in Multifunctional Silicone Elastomers and Their Application in Smart Materials.

Kowalewska A, Majewska-Smolarek K Polymers (Basel). 2024; 16(4).

PMID: 38399865 PMC: 10892785. DOI: 10.3390/polym16040487.

A highly sensitive flexible capacitive pressure sensor with hierarchical pyramid micro-structured PDMS-based dielectric layer for health monitoring.

Lv L, Liu T, Jiang T, Li J, Zhang J, Zhou Q Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023; 11:1303142.

PMID: 38026884 PMC: 10665575. DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1303142.

Bioinspired skin towards next-generation rehabilitation medicine.

Wang Z, Xiao C, Roy M, Yuan Z, Zhao L, Liu Y Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023; 11:1196174.

PMID: 37229496 PMC: 10203386. DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1196174.

Self-Healing Mechanical Properties of Selected Roofing Felts.

Luczak B, Sumelka W, Szymkuc W, Jopek H Materials (Basel). 2023; 16(3).

PMID: 36770208 PMC: 9919955. DOI: 10.3390/ma16031204.

References

Hager M, Greil P, Leyens C, van der Zwaag S, Schubert U . Self-healing materials. Adv Mater. 2010; 22(47):5424-30. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201003036. View

Kim K, Hong S, Cho H, Lee J, Suh Y, Ham J . Highly Sensitive and Stretchable Multidimensional Strain Sensor with Prestrained Anisotropic Metal Nanowire Percolation Networks. Nano Lett. 2015; 15(8):5240-7. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b01505. View

Li T, Wang Y, Li S, Liu X, Sun J . Mechanically Robust, Elastic, and Healable Ionogels for Highly Sensitive Ultra-Durable Ionic Skins. Adv Mater. 2020; 32(32):e2002706. DOI: 10.1002/adma.202002706. View

Wu X, Han Y, Zhang X, Lu C . Highly Sensitive, Stretchable, and Wash-Durable Strain Sensor Based on Ultrathin Conductive Layer@Polyurethane Yarn for Tiny Motion Monitoring. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016; 8(15):9936-45. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b01174. View

Tang Y, Guo Q, Chen Z, Zhang X, Lu C, Cao J . Scalable Manufactured Self-Healing Strain Sensors Based on Ion-Intercalated Graphene Nanosheets and Interfacial Coordination. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019; 11(26):23527-23534. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b06208. View

Georgopoulou A, Bosman A, Brancart J, Vanderborght B, Clemens F . Supramolecular Self-Healing Sensor Fiber Composites for Damage Detection in Piezoresistive Electronic Skin for Soft Robots. Polymers (Basel). 2021; 13(17). PMC: 8433753. DOI: 10.3390/polym13172983. View

Thanh Tien N, Jeon S, Kim D, Trung T, Jang M, Hwang B . A flexible bimodal sensor array for simultaneous sensing of pressure and temperature. Adv Mater. 2014; 26(5):796-804. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201302869. View

Li X, Liu J, Li D, Huang S, Huang K, Zhang X . Bioinspired Multi-Stimuli Responsive Actuators with Synergistic Color- and Morphing-Change Abilities. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2021; 8(16):e2101295. PMC: 8373155. DOI: 10.1002/advs.202101295. View

Bandodkar A, Gutruf P, Choi J, Lee K, Sekine Y, Reeder J . Battery-free, skin-interfaced microfluidic/electronic systems for simultaneous electrochemical, colorimetric, and volumetric analysis of sweat. Sci Adv. 2019; 5(1):eaav3294. PMC: 6357758. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav3294. View

10.

Kim S, Park S, Park H, Park D, Jeong Y, Kim D . Highly Sensitive and Multimodal All-Carbon Skin Sensors Capable of Simultaneously Detecting Tactile and Biological Stimuli. Adv Mater. 2015; 27(28):4178-85. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201501408. View

11.

Guo Q, Zhang X, Zhao F, Song Q, Su G, Tan Y . Protein-Inspired Self-Healable TiC MXenes/Rubber-Based Supramolecular Elastomer for Intelligent Sensing. ACS Nano. 2020; 14(3):2788-2797. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b09802. View

12.

Yan X, Liu Z, Zhang Q, Lopez J, Wang H, Wu H . Quadruple H-Bonding Cross-Linked Supramolecular Polymeric Materials as Substrates for Stretchable, Antitearing, and Self-Healable Thin Film Electrodes. J Am Chem Soc. 2018; 140(15):5280-5289. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b01682. View

13.

Han S, Alvi N, Granlof L, Granberg H, Berggren M, Fabiano S . A Multiparameter Pressure-Temperature-Humidity Sensor Based on Mixed Ionic-Electronic Cellulose Aerogels. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2019; 6(8):1802128. PMC: 6468975. DOI: 10.1002/advs.201802128. View

14.

Gao Y, Yu L, Yeo J, Lim C . Flexible Hybrid Sensors for Health Monitoring: Materials and Mechanisms to Render Wearability. Adv Mater. 2019; 32(15):e1902133. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201902133. View

15.

Cao J, Lu C, Zhuang J, Liu M, Zhang X, Yu Y . Multiple Hydrogen Bonding Enables the Self-Healing of Sensors for Human-Machine Interactions. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017; 56(30):8795-8800. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201704217. View

16.

Hu K, Xiong R, Guo H, Ma R, Zhang S, Wang Z . Self-Powered Electronic Skin with Biotactile Selectivity. Adv Mater. 2016; 28(18):3549-56. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201506187. View

17.

Popov V, Kotin I, Nebogatikova N, Smagulova S, Antonova I . Graphene-PEDOT: PSS Humidity Sensors for High Sensitive, Low-Cost, Highly-Reliable, Flexible, and Printed Electronics. Materials (Basel). 2019; 12(21). PMC: 6862435. DOI: 10.3390/ma12213477. View

18.

Su Q, Zou Q, Li Y, Chen Y, Teng S, Kelleher J . A stretchable and strain-unperturbed pressure sensor for motion interference-free tactile monitoring on skins. Sci Adv. 2021; 7(48):eabi4563. PMC: 8612682. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi4563. View

19.

Kang D, Pikhitsa P, Choi Y, Lee C, Shin S, Piao L . Ultrasensitive mechanical crack-based sensor inspired by the spider sensory system. Nature. 2014; 516(7530):222-6. DOI: 10.1038/nature14002. View

20.

Shi Y, Wang M, Ma C, Wang Y, Li X, Yu G . A Conductive Self-Healing Hybrid Gel Enabled by Metal-Ligand Supramolecule and Nanostructured Conductive Polymer. Nano Lett. 2015; 15(9):6276-81. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b03069. View