Antimicrobial and Biocompatible Hydrogel for Physiological Signal Recognition

ABSTRACT As a hydrophilic polymer material with unique physicochemical properties and biomimetic characteristics, hydrogel has attracted wide attention in the fields of chemistry, materials science, biomedicine, and engineering. However, hydrogel sensors produce bacteria during repeated use, increasing the risk of skin infections and decreasing the lifespan of hydrogel sensors. Thus, a conductive antimicrobial hydrogel sensor based on a xanthan gum‐polyvinyl alcohol dual network structure was produced using freeze–thaw method. Polyhexamethylene biguanide was introduced to endow the hydrogel with significant antibacterial activity, showing inhibition zone diameters of 2.1 ± 0.2 mm and 3.3 ± 0.1 mm against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis , respectively, along with excellent antibacterial stability. Meanwhile, the hydrogel possesses excellent toughness and elasticity with a maximum fracture strength of 327 kPa and a strain at break of 375%, and it can be molded into various three‐dimensional shapes. In addition, hydrogels can monitor the movements of various joints in the human body in real time and also detect weak electromyography signals with a high sensitivity factor of 3.37 and millisecond‐level response/recovery speed. Therefore, the biocompatibility and sensitivity of hydrogels provide a new material basis for wearable sensors and artificial skin diagnostics.