International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2 authors, 2 centres
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This review summarizes the role of conducting polymers (CPs) in healthcare sensors, highlighting how their tunable conductivity, flexibility, and biocompatibility enhance sensor performance. Key advances include combining CPs with nanomaterials to improve sensitivity and selectivity for applications such as glucose, dopamine, and intraocular pressure monitoring. The clinical significance lies in enabling flexible, wearable, and implantable devices for real-time health tracking.
**Background:** Conducting polymers (CPs) are a class of materials with high flexibility and biocompatibility, making them ideal for health monitoring applications. They can be combined with metals, 2D materials, carbon nanomaterials, and copolymers to produce materials with unique physicochemical properties. This review focuses on classifying the role of CPs and highlighting recent advances in sensor design for healthcare monitoring, including sensing mechanisms and performance evaluation.
**Methods:** The review synthesizes information from multiple studies on CP synthesis methods (chemical oxidative polymerization, electrochemical polymerization, vapor-phase polymerization) and their effects on sensor performance. It discusses the properties of various CPs such as polyacetylene (PAc), polypyrrole (PPy), polyaniline (PANi), polythiophene (PTh), poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). The review also covers immobilization techniques for biomolecules (adsorption, covalent binding, entrapment) and sensor types (biochemical, aptamer, wearable).
**Key Results:** The review reports specific performance metrics for CP-based sensors. For example, a nanoporous P3HT/rGO OFET sensor showed a response of approximately 61.3% to 10 ppm NO2 gas, with response/recovery times of 62 s/145 s and sensitivity of 1.48 ppm^-1. A PEDOT/FeOOH/BiVO4 photoelectrochemical sensor for miRNA-375-3p had a linear range from 1 fM to 10 pM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.3 fM. A PDA liposome-based sensor for Mucin 1 had an LOD of 0.8 nM. A PEDOT:PSS/PAA composite pressure sensor achieved a sensitivity of 39.90 kPa^-1 at 20% strain, response time of 49 ms, and detection limit of 27.4 Pa. A PPy/PVA strain sensor exhibited stretchability up to 309.5%, tensile strength of 32.8 MPa, and a gauge factor of 5.07 at 1.0% deformation. A corneal sensor using PEDOT doped with tosylate successfully recorded electroretinogram signals for the first time. A PEDOT-functionalized sulfur-doped graphene contact lens for dopamine detection in tears showed a sensitivity of 12.9 µA × 10^-3 M^-1/cm^2 and LOD of 101 × 10^-9 M.
**Clinical Implications:** CP-based sensors offer significant potential for non-invasive or minimally invasive health monitoring. Applications include continuous glucose monitoring, detection of cancer biomarkers (MUC1, miRNA), intraocular pressure monitoring for glaucoma, dopamine level measurement for myopia prediction, and wearable sensors for motion detection and physiological signal monitoring. The flexibility and biocompatibility of CPs enable integration into wearable devices and contact lenses, facilitating real-time health tracking and early disease diagnosis. However, challenges remain in stability, reproducibility, selectivity, and scalability for commercial applications.