Biomass-Derived E-Skin Patch Enables Smart Wound Care and Wireless Health Monitoring

Long-term wear on fragile skin also demands comfort and conformability. Flexible electronic skin (e-skin) offers a way to combine biocompatibility with multimodal sensing for continuous, noninvasive assessment. Researchers now report a conductive patch that integrates wound care with wireless biosignal monitoring.

Shaanxi University of Science and Technology and Wenzhou Medical University developed a natural biomass-derived multimodal conductive e-skin patch (CCMP) that integrates a smart wound dressing with wearable bioelectronics. Designed for precision wound management and real-time physiological monitoring, the CCMP combines flexibility, self-healing, and sensing functions in a single platform. The team reports that the approach significantly accelerates wound healing while enabling continuous data capture during recovery.

The CCMP is fabricated by incorporating aminated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-NH2) and dopamine into a carboxymethyl starch/carboxymethyl chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix via supramolecular assembly. The resulting composite exhibits high electrical conductivity of 24.1 S/m and efficient photothermal conversion. It also demonstrates strong antioxidant activity greater than 96.5% and effective antibacterial performance.

A notable materials property is an ultra-high swelling capacity of 1374%, allowing rapid absorption of wound exudate while maintaining a moist microenvironment favorable for repair. In a rat full-thickness wound model, the patch achieved a 99% wound healing rate within 14 days. Treated wounds showed significantly reduced pro-inflammatory factor levels alongside enhanced vascular regeneration.

To support continuous assessment, the researchers coupled the patch to a miniaturized electronic chip to create a portable wireless wearable system. The system transmits real-time wound micro-motion, temperature, strain, respiration, and bioelectric signals via Bluetooth. Data can be received on computers or mobile devices for timely review.

According to the team, the work advances shape-adaptive, highly sensitive, multifunctional, and cost-effective e-skin systems for intelligent wound care and health monitoring. The study was published in Nano Research on June 9, 2026. The institutions describe the platform as a comprehensive solution that merges smart dressing performance with multimodal biosignal tracking.

“We developed a natural biomass-derived multimodal conductive e-skin patch that combines smart wound dressings with skin bioelectronics for multimodal physiological signal monitoring on a portable wireless wearable platform. This e-skin patch offers a comprehensive solution for precision wound management and intelligent healthcare applications,” said Xugang Dang, corresponding author of the paper and a professor at Shaanxi University of Science and Technology.

“This study pioneers a novel approach for wireless wound monitoring systems, advancing human-friendly e-skin patch development from single-functional devices to a human-machine-environment intelligent symbiosis system,” added Manhui Zheng, co-corresponding author from Wenzhou Medical University.