Biodegradable electronic polymers: from device components to in vivo monitoring technologies

Unplanned readmissions after vascular surgery are frequent, resulting in poorer outcomes for patients and significant costs.

Post-surgical monitoring is now restricted to the hospital environment, with devices made of bulky electronics, wired connections, and expensive setups.Dissolvable electronic components led to the first examples of resorbable implants, including pressure sensors for post-surgical blood flow monitoring.

However, water-soluble materials suffer from poor performance, uncontrolled bulk degradation, and inadequate lifetime.

Advanced temporary implants would require components that degrade by the action of enzymes – something that cannot be achieved with conventional semiconductors.

Conjugated polymers provide low operating voltages, flexibility, and, most importantly, the potential to undergo enzymatic breakdown.The program develops device components that are eroded by enzymes normally secreted by cells during inflammation and tissue regeneration.

It is divided into 3 tasks to address 1) the synthesis and biocompatibility of biodegradable electronics, 2) the development of a biodegradable pressure sensor and triboelectric nanogenerator, 3) integration into a self-powered sensor whose operation and degradation will be tested in vitro and in vivo.Results will provide new degradable bioelectronics and have potentially wide clinical implications for minimally invasive methods of early diagnosis and continuous post-surgical monitoring after patients discharge.