Researchers unveil rapid self-healing electronic skin, paving the way for smarter, tougher wearables

In a breakthrough that could redefine the future of wearable technology, scientists at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation have developed an electronic skin that can heal itself within just 10 seconds of being damaged. This cutting-edge material, which maintains both flexibility and electrical performance after repeated wear and tear, overcomes one of the biggest challenges in wearable electronics—and could soon power next-generation health monitoring devices.

The team’s findings appear in a study titled “Rapid Self-Healing Electronic Skin for Real-Time Biosignal Monitoring” in Science Advances.

Led by Dr. Yangzhi Zhu, the research team created a flexible, stretchable polymer embedded with silver nanowires (AgNWs) and dynamic disulfide bonds—a combination that allows the material to autonomously repair cuts, tears, and breaks in seconds, all at room temperature and without any external triggers like heat or light.

“This is a technology that completely redefines what’s possible for wearable devices,” said Dr. Zhu. “By cutting the recovery time to under a minute, we’ve cleared one of the biggest hurdles on the road to practical, everyday use of electronic skin.”

The newly developed material proved remarkably resilient in lab tests, withstanding over 50 cut-and-heal cycles and more than 50,000 bending cycles without significant loss of performance.

It remained stable across a wide range of temperatures and humidity levels and even held up under running water. Integrated into a wearable system, the electronic skin successfully captured muscle activity data during exercise. The researchers further trained an AI model to classify muscle fatigue states—relaxed, moderate, and extreme—with an impressive accuracy rate exceeding 95%.

“This work is a big step toward seamless, real-time health monitoring,” noted Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., Director and CEO of the Terasaki Institute. “Wearable technologies are poised to play a major role in personalized health care, and innovations like this will help devices keep up with the demands of everyday life.”

Looking ahead, the team is exploring applications in sports performance tracking, prosthetic control systems, and remote health care. They’re also investigating ways to scale up production using alternative conductive materials and next-generation printing techniques like roll-to-roll processing and inkjet fabrication.

Provided by
Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation