Flexible and Stretchable Electrodes for In Vivo Electrophysiological and Electrochemical Monitoring†

Comprehensive Summary

In vivo monitoring of bioelectrical and biochemical signals with implanted electrodes has received great interest over the past decades. However, this faces huge challenges because of the severe mechanical mismatch between conventional rigid electrodes and soft biological tissues. In recent years, the emergence of flexible and stretchable electrodes offers seamless and conformable biological-electronic interfaces and has demonstrated significant advantages for in vivo electrochemical and electrophysiological monitoring. This review first summarizes the strategies for electrode fabrication from the point of substrate and conductive materials. Next, recent progress in electrode functionalization for improved performance is presented. Then, the advances of flexible and stretchable electrodes in exploring bioelectrical and biochemical signals are introduced. Finally, we present some challenges and perspectives ranging from electrode fabrication to application.

Key Scientists

In 2001, a seminal work by Kipke et al. first showed flexible polyimide-based intracortical electrode arrays.^[1] This electrode was further expanded to 252-channel using microelectromechanical systems technology by Stieglitz et al. in 2009 and achieved large-scale cortical recordings.^[2] Later, Lieber et al. created mesh electronics that allow for seamless and minimally invasive three-dimensional interpenetration with nerve tissues, opening up unique applications for flexible electronics.^[3] Subsequently, Rogers et al. described bioresorbable electronics for transient electrical activity recordings in 2016.^[4] And Frank et al. proposed polymer electrode arrays capable of resolving single neurons in 2019.^[5] It wasn't until 2020 that a significant breakthrough in biochemical signals monitoring by Peng et al. demonstrated functionalized carbon nanotube fibre bundles for multiple disease biomarkers monitoring.^[6] Later on, Mooney et al. established the first fully viscoelastic electrode arrays for neural recordings from the brain and heart in 2021.^[7] Recently, Bao et al. presented tissue-mimicking, stretchable neurotransmitter interfaces for monitoring the brain and gut.^[8]