Progress in polysaccharide-based conductive hydrogels: Natural sources, functional types, and their roles in energy and biomedical applications

IF 4.9 3区工程技术 Q2 ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC

Sensors and Actuators A-physical Pub Date : 2025-09-12 DOI:10.1016/j.sna.2025.117046

Wilson M. Seleka, Edwin Makhado

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Polysaccharides, as the most abundant and renewable natural polymers, serve a crucial role in the advancement of hydrogel materials due to their inherent biodegradability, biocompatibility, and functional modifiability. Polysaccharide-based conductive hydrogels have attracted significant popularity within the field of flexible electronics as a result of their excellent electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility, environmental sustainability, and ability to interface seamlessly with biological tissues. This review offers an in-depth discussion of recent developments in this rapidly evolving area, beginning with an introduction to commonly used polysaccharide materials such as chitosan, cellulose, starch, carboxymethyl cellulose, agarose, and carrageenan. It reviews their molecular structures, functional groups, and modification strategies that enable electrical conductivity, including blending with conductive fillers (e.g., carbon nanotubes, graphene, and metal nanoparticles) and chemical doping. Furthermore, the review examines various preparation methods such as physical crosslinking, chemical crosslinking, and freeze-thaw techniques and their impact on hydrogel performance. It explores critical properties such as mechanical strength, stretchability, self-healing ability, environmental resistance (e.g., anti-freezing and anti-drying), ionic/electronic conductivity, and transparency. The multifunctionality of these hydrogels is emphasised by their wide range of applications, including but not limited to: wound healing, wearable sensors, artificial skin, energy storage devices (such as supercapacitors and batteries), fuel cells, solar cells, and gas sensors. Finally, the paper discusses existing problems and suggests future research directions for polysaccharide-based conductive hydrogels in flexible electronics.

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多糖基导电水凝胶的研究进展：天然来源、功能类型及其在能源和生物医学应用中的作用

多糖作为最丰富、可再生的天然聚合物，由于其固有的生物可降解性、生物相容性和功能可修饰性，在水凝胶材料的发展中起着至关重要的作用。基于多糖的导电水凝胶由于其优异的导电性、机械柔韧性、环境可持续性以及与生物组织无缝连接的能力，在柔性电子领域受到了广泛的欢迎。本文从介绍壳聚糖、纤维素、淀粉、羧甲基纤维素、琼脂糖和卡拉胶等常用的多糖材料开始，对这一快速发展的领域的最新进展进行了深入的讨论。它回顾了它们的分子结构、官能团和实现导电性的修饰策略，包括与导电填料（例如碳纳米管、石墨烯和金属纳米颗粒）和化学掺杂混合。此外，综述了各种制备方法，如物理交联、化学交联和冻融技术，以及它们对水凝胶性能的影响。它探讨了关键性能，如机械强度、拉伸性、自愈能力、环境抗性（如抗冻和抗干燥）、离子/电子导电性和透明度。这些水凝胶的多功能性被其广泛的应用所强调，包括但不限于：伤口愈合、可穿戴传感器、人造皮肤、能量存储设备（如超级电容器和电池）、燃料电池、太阳能电池和气体传感器。最后，讨论了多糖基导电水凝胶在柔性电子领域存在的问题，并提出了今后的研究方向。

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来源期刊

Sensors and Actuators A-physical 工程技术-工程：电子与电气

CiteScore

8.10

自引率

6.50%

发文量

630

审稿时长

49 days

期刊介绍： Sensors and Actuators A: Physical brings together multidisciplinary interests in one journal entirely devoted to disseminating information on all aspects of research and development of solid-state devices for transducing physical signals. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical regularly publishes original papers, letters to the Editors and from time to time invited review articles within the following device areas: • Fundamentals and Physics, such as: classification of effects, physical effects, measurement theory, modelling of sensors, measurement standards, measurement errors, units and constants, time and frequency measurement. Modeling papers should bring new modeling techniques to the field and be supported by experimental results. • Materials and their Processing, such as: piezoelectric materials, polymers, metal oxides, III-V and II-VI semiconductors, thick and thin films, optical glass fibres, amorphous, polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon. • Optoelectronic sensors, such as: photovoltaic diodes, photoconductors, photodiodes, phototransistors, positron-sensitive photodetectors, optoisolators, photodiode arrays, charge-coupled devices, light-emitting diodes, injection lasers and liquid-crystal displays. • Mechanical sensors, such as: metallic, thin-film and semiconductor strain gauges, diffused silicon pressure sensors, silicon accelerometers, solid-state displacement transducers, piezo junction devices, piezoelectric field-effect transducers (PiFETs), tunnel-diode strain sensors, surface acoustic wave devices, silicon micromechanical switches, solid-state flow meters and electronic flow controllers. Etc...