Page 177 - Read Online

Nam et al. Soft Sci 2023;3:28 Soft Science
DOI: 10.20517/ss.2023.19

Review Article Open Access

Soft conductive nanocomposites for recording

biosignals on skin

1,2
1,2
Seonghyeon Nam 1,2,# , Chansul Park 1,2,# , Sung-Hyuk Sunwoo 1,2,3,# , Minseong Kim , Hyunjin Lee , Mincheol
4,*
Lee , Dae-Hyeong Kim 1,2,5,*
1
Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
2
School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
3
Institute of Radiation Medicine, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea.
4
Electro-Medical Equipment Research Division, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), Ansan 15588, Republic of
Korea.
5
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
#
The authors contributed equally.
* Correspondence to: Prof. Dae-Hyeong Kim, School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, 1,
Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea. E-mail: dkim98@snu.ac.kr; Dr. Mincheol Lee, Electro-Medical
Equipment Research Division, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), 111, Hanggaul-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan 15588,
Republic of Korea. E-mail: minckeri@keri.re.kr
How to cite this article: Nam S, Park C, Sunwoo SH, Kim M, Lee H, Lee M, Kim DH. Soft conductive nanocomposites for
recording biosignals on skin. Soft Sci 2023;3:28. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ss.2023.19
Received: 27 Apr 2023 First Decision: 1 Jun 2023 Revised: 21 Jun 2023 Accepted: 29 Jun 2023 Published: 2 Aug 2023
Academic Editor: Zhifeng Ren Copy Editor: Pei-Yun Wang Production Editor: Pei-Yun Wang

Abstract
Soft conductive nanocomposites have introduced significant breakthroughs in bio-integrated electronics by
mitigating the mechanical mismatch between the body and the device. Compared with conventional wearable
sensors based on rigid electronic materials, the wearable sensors based on soft nanocomposites are advantageous
to long-term and high-quality biosignal recordings. Materials used for the synthesis of the nanocomposites,
especially nanofillers, are critical for determining the quality of recorded biosignals and the performance of the
nanocomposites. In this review, we focus on recent advances in soft conductive nanocomposites, mainly on their
electrical and mechanical properties according to the types of nanofillers, and present their applications to
wearable biosignal recording devices. We have classified the nanofillers into four categories: carbon-based
nanomaterials, conducting polymers, metal-based nanomaterials, and liquid metals. We then introduce the
applications of nanocomposites as wearable sensors that record various biosignals, including electrophysiological,
strain, pressure, and biochemical information. In conclusion, a brief outlook on the remaining challenges for future
nanomaterial-based bioelectronics is provided.

Keywords: Nanocomposites, nanomaterials, soft materials, wearable sensors, bio-integrated electronics

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

www.softscijournal.com