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

Chronic and acute wounds require dressings that maintain moisture, prevent infection, and support timely intervention, yet monitoring remains largely intermittent and subjective. 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.