Biobased Polymer Composites for Sensor-Integrated Wound Dressings: Structural Roles, Sensing Interfaces and Validation Challenges

Sensor-integrated wound dressings place optical, electrochemical, biochemical, or wireless sensing modules within materials that are simultaneously responsible for wound contact and fluid management. In this setting, biobased polymers influence hydration, swelling, capillary transport, wet-state mechanics, retention of functional phases, and the local environment presented to the sensor. This review examines how chitosan, alginate, hyaluronic acid, cellulose, nanocellulose, bacterial cellulose, gelatin, collagen, and silk fibroin function as wound-contact layers, absorbent reservoirs, capillary supports, transition domains, and hosts for sensing components. Auxiliary phases, including PVA, PEDOT:PSS, carbon nanomaterials, MXenes, metal nanoparticles, responsive dyes, enzymes, and antibody-based recognition elements, are considered according to the conductivity, optical response, catalytic activity, antimicrobial function, or molecular selectivity they introduce into these matrices. Across the reviewed studies, signal reliability varied with exudate handling, sensing-zone exposure, fouling, wet-state stability, and the spatial organization of functional modules. We use these relationships to examine how material architecture stabilizes the sensing interface and to interpret validation in the wound-monitoring conditions under which each readout was tested.