MIT engineers have designed what may be the Band-Aid of the future: a sticky, stretchy, gel-like material that can incorporate temperature sensors, LED lights, and other electronics, as well as tiny, drug-delivering reservoirs and channels. The “smart wound dressing” releases medicine in response to changes in skin temperature and can be designed to light up if, say, medicine is running low.
When the dressing is applied to a highly flexible area, such as the elbow or knee, it stretches with the body, keeping the embedded electronics functional and intact.
The key to the design is a hydrogel matrix designed by Xuanhe Zhao, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The hydrogel, which Zhao detailed earlier this month, is a rubbery material, mostly composed of water, designed to bond strongly to surfaces such as gold, titanium, aluminum, silicon, glass, and ceramic.
In a new paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, the team reports embedding various electronics within the hydrogel, such as conductive wires, semiconductor chips, LED lights, and temperature sensors. Zhao says electronics coated in hydrogel may be used not just on the surface of the skin but also inside the body, for example as implanted, biocompatible glucose sensors, or even soft, compliant neural probes.
“Electronics are usually hard and dry, but the human body is soft and wet. These two systems have drastically different properties,” Zhao says. “If you want to put electronics in close contact with the human body for applications such as health care monitoring and drug delivery, it is highly desirable to make the electronic devices soft and stretchable to fit the environment of the human body. That’s the motivation for stretchable hydrogel electronics.”
Zhao’s co-authors on the paper are graduate students Shaoting Lin, Hyunwoo Yuk, German Alberto Parada, postdoc Teng Zhang, Hyunwoo Koo from Samsung Display, and Cunjiang Yu from the University of Houston.
MIT researcher Xuanhe Zhao discusses a newly developed hydrogel and how it could be used to implant electronic devices in the body.
Page 1 of 2
Suggested Items
I-Connect007’s Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
07/04/2025 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007For our industry, we have seen several bullish market announcements over the past few weeks, including one this week by IDC on the massive growth in the global server market. We’re also closely watching global trade and nearshoring. One good example of successful nearshoring is Rehm Thermal Systems, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in Mexico and the official opening of its new building in Guadalajara.
Hon Hai Education Foundation Continues to Promote Quantum Education
07/04/2025 | FoxconnHon Hai Education Foundation has long been committed to promoting forward-looking technology education in Taiwan's high schools, and held the "High School Quantum Teacher Training Camp" in Tainan City on July 1.
Incap UK Achieves JOSCAR Zero Accreditation
07/04/2025 | IncapIncap Electronics UK has been accredited under JOSCAR Zero, a new sustainability-focused extension of the defence and aerospace sector’s supplier assurance system.
Kitron Secures Contract for Components Supporting Unmanned Aerial Systems
07/04/2025 | KitronKitron has received a contract with an estimated value between EUR 4 and 8 million for the production and supply of advanced electronic components used in unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
NOTE Receives Order Worth 132 MSEK and Expands Collaboration with Customer within Security & Defense
07/04/2025 | NOTENOTE has received an order worth SEK 132 million from one of its existing customers operating within Security & Defense. NOTE thereby strengthens its long-term collaboration with the industry-leading customer.