Hydrogels with flexible electronics

“Hydrogel” entered the biomedical lexicon 125 years ago, and its variations now include uses for wound healing, tissue regeneration, cell therapy, and implantable devices (for an excellent history of medical hydrogels – SEE .  This piece describes research at the Korean Institute for Science and Technology (Seoul) on placing flexible electronic circuits into hydrogels for wearable or implantable devices. “They use a nano ink, pushed through an inkjet printer, to create circuits on a transfer mold. The resulting circuits can be transferred to the hydrogel, contouring its shape and texture, with the original substrate on which it was printed being removed. The technology doesn’t melt the hydrogel, maintaining its desired characteristics.”  Hydrogel’s remarkable feature is that it swells in water, but only slowly dissolves.    MORE

Image Credit:  Korean Institute for Science and Technology