Recent advances in biodegradable electronics- from fundament to the next-generation multi-functional, medical and environmental device

Abstract

The great development of healthcare/wearable materials in environmental and medical sensing has put forward the use of biodegradable electronics, such as poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), which functional materials become increasingly an important role in the Internet of Things. To systematical introduce next-generation biodegradable electronics, three key issues are summarized along with the physical biodegradable sensing to environmental and sustainable systems. First, the coupling piezoelectric/piezoresistive/triboelectric mechanism and various micro/nanostructures enhancing electrical performance to assess their advantages in terms of flexibility and compatibility are concluded. The second, functional biodegradable materials with the ability of environmentally friendly and self-powered function devices give dramatic space with excellent mechanical properties. Third, facing the developmental trends in machine learning and sustainable systems, the broad applications of biodegradable piezoelectrics in chemical/gas sensing and artificial degradable materials provide various opportunities for next-generation applications. Thus, biodegradable piezoelectric materials exhibit good biodegradability three in one (piezoresistance/piezoelectric/triboelectric) effects in the future-wearable and medical applications and also provide perspective on trends of the next-generation biodegradable electronics with the properties of the coupling mechanism, multi-functional applications, and machine learning-assisted abilities.