Using Wool Keratin as a Structural Biomaterial and Natural Mediator to Fabricate Biocompatible and Robust Bioelectronic Platforms

The design and fabrication of biopolymer-incorporated flexible electronics have attracted immense interest in healthcare systems, degradable implants, and electronic skin. However, the application of these soft bioelectronic devices is often hampered by their intrinsic drawbacks, such as poor stability, inferior scalability, and unsatisfactory durability. Herein, for the first time, using wool keratin (WK) as a structural biomaterial and natural mediator to fabricate soft bioelectronics is presented. Both theoretical and experimental studies reveal that the unique features of WK can endow carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with excellent water dispersibility, stability, and biocompatibility. Therefore, well-dispersed and electroconductive bio-inks can be prepared via a straightforward mixing process of WK and CNTs. The as-obtained WK/CNTs inks can be directly exploited to design versatile and high-performance bioelectronics, such as flexible circuits and electrocardiogram electrodes. More impressively, WK can also be a natural mediator to connect CNTs and polyacrylamide chains to fabricate a strain sensor with enhanced mechanical and electrical properties. With conformable and soft architectures, these WK-derived sensing units can be further assembled into an integrated glove for real-time gesture recognition and dexterous robot manipulations, suggesting the great potential of the WK/CNT composites for wearable artificial intelligence.

Automated summary

The combination of wool keratin (WK) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a structural biomaterial and natural mediator enables the fabrication of flexible and high-performance bioelectronic devices. The WK/CNT composites possess excellent water dispersibility, stability, biocompatibility, and mechanical properties. These composites can be used to design versatile bioelectronics, strain sensors, and integrated gloves for real-time gesture recognition and robot manipulations, demonstrating their great potential in wearable artificial intelligence.