{"title":"Development of ecofriendly, biodegradable electrically conductive double-layer bio-hydrogel nanocomposite for sustainable medical device applications","authors":"Zohre Jafari Vafa, Ehsan Nazarzadeh Zare, Mohammad Reza Fadavi Eslam, Pooyan Makvandi","doi":"10.1007/s42114-025-01226-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Electrotherapy devices used for pain relief and muscle recovery often face challenges because traditional electrode materials are not biodegradable, causing environmental issues and being less compatible with the body. While current conductive hydrogels show potential, they usually lack the combination of good electrical performance, biodegradability, and body-friendliness needed for sustainable medical devices. To address these challenges, this study presents a novel, eco-friendly, electrically conductive double-layer nanocomposite bio-hydrogel developed using tragacanth gum (TG) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), enhanced with carboxylated graphene (Gr<sub>F</sub>) and polypyrrole (PPy). The innovative double-layer design represents a significant advancement over single-layer hydrogels, demonstrating reduced impedance and a substantial increase in conductivity (up to 4.99 × 10⁵ times) at frequencies relevant to electrotherapy applications. Specifically, the tragacanth gum/polyvinyl alcohol/carboxylated graphene@polypyrrole (TPG@PPy) bio-hydrogel exhibited a AC conductivity enhancement of up to 1.5 times compared to the tragacanth gum/polyvinyl alcohol@polypyrrole (TP@PPy) bio-hydrogel at frequency of 80 Hz. Additionally, the material’s high biodegradability, with up to 49% mass loss over 60 days in soil, confirms environmental safety. These results show that the double-layer bio-hydrogel could be a better, eco-friendly option for future electrotherapy devices, making it different from current conductive hydrogels.</p><h3>Graphical Abstract</h3>\n<div><figure><div><div><picture><source><img></source></picture></div></div></figure></div></div>","PeriodicalId":7220,"journal":{"name":"Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42114-025-01226-z.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials","FirstCategoryId":"88","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42114-025-01226-z","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MATERIALS SCIENCE, COMPOSITES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Electrotherapy devices used for pain relief and muscle recovery often face challenges because traditional electrode materials are not biodegradable, causing environmental issues and being less compatible with the body. While current conductive hydrogels show potential, they usually lack the combination of good electrical performance, biodegradability, and body-friendliness needed for sustainable medical devices. To address these challenges, this study presents a novel, eco-friendly, electrically conductive double-layer nanocomposite bio-hydrogel developed using tragacanth gum (TG) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), enhanced with carboxylated graphene (GrF) and polypyrrole (PPy). The innovative double-layer design represents a significant advancement over single-layer hydrogels, demonstrating reduced impedance and a substantial increase in conductivity (up to 4.99 × 10⁵ times) at frequencies relevant to electrotherapy applications. Specifically, the tragacanth gum/polyvinyl alcohol/carboxylated graphene@polypyrrole (TPG@PPy) bio-hydrogel exhibited a AC conductivity enhancement of up to 1.5 times compared to the tragacanth gum/polyvinyl alcohol@polypyrrole (TP@PPy) bio-hydrogel at frequency of 80 Hz. Additionally, the material’s high biodegradability, with up to 49% mass loss over 60 days in soil, confirms environmental safety. These results show that the double-layer bio-hydrogel could be a better, eco-friendly option for future electrotherapy devices, making it different from current conductive hydrogels.
期刊介绍：
Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials is a leading international journal that promotes interdisciplinary collaboration among materials scientists, engineers, chemists, biologists, and physicists working on composites, including nanocomposites. Our aim is to facilitate rapid scientific communication in this field.
The journal publishes high-quality research on various aspects of composite materials, including materials design, surface and interface science/engineering, manufacturing, structure control, property design, device fabrication, and other applications. We also welcome simulation and modeling studies that are relevant to composites. Additionally, papers focusing on the relationship between fillers and the matrix are of particular interest.
Our scope includes polymer, metal, and ceramic matrices, with a special emphasis on reviews and meta-analyses related to materials selection. We cover a wide range of topics, including transport properties, strategies for controlling interfaces and composition distribution, bottom-up assembly of nanocomposites, highly porous and high-density composites, electronic structure design, materials synergisms, and thermoelectric materials.
Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials follows a rigorous single-blind peer-review process to ensure the quality and integrity of the published work.
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