User:Anastasia Feraco/sandbox

Plastic Bioelectronics
Plastic bioelectronics are devices that utilize organic materials as matrices for electronic components to interface with biological systems. The field of plastic bioelectronics is defined in Nature as “a research field that takes advantage of the inherent properties of polymers and soft organic electronics for applications at the interface of biology and electronics.” The field currently has two main focuses: wearable devices and implantable devices.

Wearable Bioelectronics
Wearable bioelectronic devices, such as Artificial Skin, act as stretchable biosensors that give the user access to physical conditions by directly monitoring physical and chemical reactions on the surface of tissue. These wearable devices can be worn directly on the skin and over joints. These devices allow for real-time data acquisition from sensors embedded in the material, and present interesting materials problems by encasing inorganic electrical circuits inside of polymer-based devices that have to be able to stretch, deform, and resist thermal and environmental changes ( https://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=WOS&search_mode=GeneralSearch&qid=11&SID=6CIUw9Zs11aWHpRlWfP&page=1&doc=3 ).

Wearable devices also utilize polymeric sensors in addition to electrical sensors. These sensors, broadly categorized as physical sensors and biochemical sensors, allow the devices to access vital health information. Physical sensors specialize in collecting physical data: pressure, temperature, and mechanical strain are all examples of categories of data that are collected by these physical sensors. Biochemical sensors utilize the diversity and flexibility of synthetic polymers to measure controlled chemical reactions with the human body to give insight into processes and conditions. Biochemical sensors have the ability to detect things such as oxygen concentration in the blood, and protein interactions to check cells for toxicology.

Current wearable devices are manufactured by printing integrated circuits on large plastic sheets. Micrometer thick substrates are used to achieve the flexibility and stretchability necessary to effectively utilize the devices on the surface of biological systems, such as on skin and over joints. By utilizing inkjet printing, surface modification, and in some cases, 3D printing techniques, these devices can be kept extremely thin while remaining functional.

Implantable Bioelectronics
Implantable devices offer additional challenges, especially at the biological-electrical interface. When an implant enters the body, it is often fabricated from hard, inorganic materials that are not compatible with the body. This often leads to a foreign body response by the bodies immune system, damaging the device and reducing the lifespan of the device. To combat this problem, biological films have been explored to bridge the union of device and organic tissue.

By using polymeric materials with integrated electrical circuitry, the need for hard-electronics can be almost completely negated [Kozai, T. D. Y. & Kipke, D. R. Insertion shuttle with carboxyl terminated self-assembled monolayer coatings for implanting flexible polymer neural probes in the brain. J. Neurosci. Meth. 184, 199–205 (2009)]. The polymers also work to reduce the difference between the biological and electromechanical system, which reduces the body’s foreign body response, thus increasing the lifespan of implants. In addition, much like with the wearable devices, these polymeric coatings can utilize biochemical sensors to retrieve more information from an implant and better monitor the data being received from it, in addition to reducing the occurrence of infections from the implants, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961209013556. The applications for such technology go as far as to treat epilepsy, regenerate nerves, and more.