Bioinspired, microstructured silk fibroin adhesives for flexible skin sensors

Abstract

Wearable epidermal sensors are of great importance to the next generation of personalized healthcare. The adhesion between the flexible sensor and skin surface is critical for obtaining accurate, reliable, and stable signals. Herein we present a facile approach to fabricate a microstructured, natural silk fibroin protein-based adhesive for achieving highly conformal, comfortable, adjustable, and biocompatible adhesion on the skin surface. The microstructured fibroin adhesive (MSFA) exhibits reliable and stable bonding force on skin surfaces, even under humid or wet conditions, and can be easily peeled off from the skin without causing significant pain. Such an MSFA can greatly improve the sensitivity and reusability of epidermal strain sensors because of its conformal and tunable adhesion on skin surfaces. The MFSA has a great potential to be applied as a functional adhesive for various epidermal electronic sensors in the era of personalized healthcare.