Antimicrobial MXene-based conductive alginate hydrogels as flexible electronics

Abstract

Flexible electronics have received considerable attention for their potential applications in wearable human health monitoring. Recently, conductive hydrogels have shown great potential in the application of flexible electronic devices. However, the restricted space of the 2D plane restricts the performance of MXene sensors, and conventional conductive hydrogels lack antibacterial properties, limiting their deep application in biomedical-related products. To overcome these limitations, we proposed an antibacterial and conductive MXene-SA-TSA-AM hydrogel through the radical polymerization of acrylamide in this work. Specifically, the coupling between sodium alginate (SA) and dimethyloctadecyl-(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl) ammonium chloride (TSA) brought about excellent antibacterial properties. MXene-SA-TSA-AM Hydrogels showed compelling swelling ratios (36–38 times), great mechanical properties (up to 1780 %), excellent self-healing ability (<10 min), and reproducible adhesion. During the pressure sensor applications, MXene-SA-TSA-AM hydrogels were demonstrated to accurately and rapidly monitor human physiological activities of finger bend and pulse with a rapid response (<0.2 s) and high stability (up to 5000 cycles). Furthermore, the MXene-SA-TSA-AM hydrogel exhibited excellent antibacterial properties, which can successfully inhibit Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli with efficiency up to 99.6 % and 99.3 %, respectively. Finally, we anticipated that this novel antibacterial and conductive MXene-SA-TSA-AM hydrogel would further promote the deeper application of flexible electronics in biomedical-related products.