Advancing Wearable Cardiovascular Sensing with MXene‑Hydrogel Interfaces: Our Work in Small Science

Addressing Signal Stability in Wearable Bioelectronics

Reliable wearable electrocardiography (ECG) and blood pressure monitoring require electrode materials that are soft, conductive, mechanically stable, and biocompatible, while maintaining strong and durable skin–electrode interfaces. In practice, many existing wearable electrodes suffer from interfacial degradation, signal drift, and motion‑induced noise, limiting their effectiveness for long‑term, real‑world monitoring.

This work tackles these challenges through ion‑driven interfacial engineering of MXene–polyacrylamide hydrogel composites, enabling enhanced electrical coupling, mechanical robustness, and signal fidelity under dynamic physiological conditions.

By precisely tuning ion–material interactions at the MXene–hydrogel interface, the developed electrodes demonstrate:

• High electrical conductivity with stable signal transmission

• Soft, stretchable mechanics for improved skin conformity

• Robust interfacial bonding, mitigating delamination and signal degradation

• Low‑impedance, low‑noise ECG signal acquisition, even during motion

These properties are critical for enabling consistent and reliable physiological monitoring in wearable formats.

Enabling AI‑Driven Blood Pressure Monitoring

Beyond ECG sensing, this platform supports AI‑driven blood pressure estimation, leveraging high‑quality biosignals as inputs for predictive algorithms. Accurate and stable signal acquisition is fundamental to data‑driven cardiovascular analytics, and the interfacial engineering strategy presented in this work provides a strong materials foundation for continuous, cuff‑less blood pressure monitoring.

By bridging advanced materials design with artificial intelligence, this study highlights how materials‑level innovations can directly enable next‑generation digital health solutions.

The MXene–hydrogel interface strategy introduced here offers a versatile framework for future soft bioelectronic devices, with potential applications extending beyond cardiovascular monitoring to human–machine interfaces, rehabilitation sensing, and long‑term health tracking.

We appreciate the collaborative effort from COCHE and Yango University.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smsc.202500526

Journal: Small ScienceYear: 2026Article: e202500526

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