A Triboelectric Nanogenerator-Based Electromechanical Synchronized Sensing Probe for Simultaneous Detection of Cardiac Physiological Activities

Cardiovascular diseases are recognized as the leading global cause of mortality and disability, where elucidating electromechanical coupling is critical for early diagnosis and treatment. However, current technologies have been limited by the lack of synchronous acquisition of cardiac electrical and mechanical signals, restricting the quantitative evaluation of severe clinical complications such as electromechanical dissociation. In this work, an electromechanical synchronized sensing probe was developed by integrating a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)-based pressure sensor with a microelectrode array on a flexible patch. Stainless-steel springs and flexible polyimide substrates were employed to establish cardiac curvature-adaptive interfaces, enabling stable dual-modal signal acquisition. The device utilized a micropillar structure and corona enhancement to strengthen the triboelectric effect, achieving a detection limit of 0.6 kPa, a sensitivity of 0.14 nA/kPa, and a rapid response within the 1.8-7.2 Hz strain frequency range, maintaining stable performance over 100,000 cycles. In addition, a low-noise customized hardware circuitry was designed to achieve real-time synchronized signal capture, with interchannel crosstalk below effective thresholds, allowing accurate quantification of electromechanical delay and repolarization abnormalities. In human radial artery tests, the system successfully synchronized the acquisition of electrocardiogram and pulse signals, enabling heart rate variability analysis and dynamic blood pressure estimation based on pulse transit time. In rat models, progressive electromechanical decoupling and repolarization instability were captured under surgical stress conditions. Overall, this flexible TENG-MEA platform provided a high-fidelity and multifunctional tool for real-time cardiac electromechanical monitoring, offering a promising approach for investigating arrhythmogenesis and facilitating early diagnosis of cardiomyopathies.