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Electronic wound bandages have to balance conformability and wound healing properties. Here, the authors develop a smart patch (iSAFE) using biomaterials with bioelectronics to facilitate permeability with waterproofing. This achieves intelligent wound management with real-time wound monitoring and active therapy.

A universal, high-resolution printing technology for metal oxide thin-film transistors is still lacking. A plasmonic printing technology is reported to fabricate high-performance, solution-processed all-metal oxide thin-film electronics under room temperature and ambient conditions.

A nanofluidic intracellular delivery (NanoFLUID) patch provides a versatile, biocompatible and efficient method for the targeted delivery of payloads to internal organs for therapeutic purposes and for biomolecular investigations.

A selective shielding strategy achieves the differentiation and quantification of distinct plasmonic photocatalytic mechanisms including hot carrier-driven photochemistry, resonant field-mediated energy transfers, and thermal contributions.

Interfaces for epidermal virtual reality technology are demonstrated that can communicate by programmable patterns of localized mechanical vibrations.

Developing electronic skins for sensing the spatial ___location of objects beyond two-dimensional space is difficult. The authors present a flexible, lightweight, and transparent electronic skin for non-contact accurate 3D motion sensing. This achieves micron-level precision, reducing complexity and power consumption.

An ultrathin, needle-shaped piezoelectric microsystem that can be injected or mounted onto conventional biopsy needles measures variations in tissue modulus in real time and can thus be used to distinguish abnormal from healthy tissue.

A biodegradable electronic bandage that applies pulsed and d.c. electrostimulation can accelerate the healing of intestinal wounds in mice via transfection of cells and stimulation-induced secretion of healing factor from those cells.

No method exists for real-time evaluation of the status of spinal implants. Here, the authors developed a bio-adhesive metal detector array (BioMDA) that provides a wearable, non-invasive solution for positional analyses of osseous implants within the spine.

Phase-switchable preparation of two-dimensional WS₂ is achieved through an electrochemical Li⁺ intercalation-based exfoliation strategy. A low discharge current density with high cutoff voltage produces pure semiconducting 2H phase WS₂ bilayers, while a higher discharge current density with a lower cutoff voltage favours semimetallic 1T′ phase WS₂ monolayers.

Existing ingestible electronics suffer from poor tissue contact, short dwell time, and limited battery life. Here, the authors report an ingestible, battery- free, and tissue-adhering robotic interface for non-invasive and chronic electrostimulation of the gut.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic highlighted our need for methods that allow rapid viral surveillance. Here, authors report a wireless, battery-free and wearable self-diagnosis platform that can continuously capture viral particles, diagnose infection status and evaluate symptom severity via breath and blow.

The haptic interface is an essential part of human–machine interfaces where tactile information is delivered between human and machine. Yao et al. develop a soft, ultrathin, miniaturized and wireless electrotactile system that allows virtual tactile information to be reproduced over the hand.

An electronic skin that connects rigid inorganic electronic components with a multilayered stretchy liquid metal fibre mat using a hybrid liquid metal solder can offer high integration density while remaining soft, permeable and biocompatible.

It’s challenging to capture “hidden” drivers that may not be genetically-altered or differentially-expressed from omics data. Here the authors developed NetBID2, a comprehensive network-based toolbox with versatile features, enabling the integration of multi-omics data to expose such hidden drivers.

Host defense against helminth infection is mediated by mucosal type 2 immunity. Using gain- and loss-of-function mouse models, and mouse intestinal organoids, Xiong et al. show that SIRT6 modulates tuft and goblet cell expansion in intestinal epithelium by activating STAT6 to maintain type 2 mucosal immunity in response to helminth infection.

Laser-induced graphene (LIG) can be obtained via a practically convenient approach, but its amorphous characteristics limit its applications. Here, the authors report a flash Joule heating strategy to improve the crystalline quality and conductivity of LIG, leading to strain sensors with enhanced sensitivity.

Incorporation of a ‘liquid diode’ into a wearable electronic platform enhances comfort and stability by shunting away sweat as it accumulates.

A haptic interface that uses thermal, mechanical and electrotactile modes of stimulation to target different receptors in the skin can provide users with diverse haptic sensations, reproducing the tactile information of fine roughness, macro roughness, slipperiness, force and temperature.

A neurostimulation device with a conformable sensor array can stimulate the brain with ultrasound while minimizing the effect of ultrasound-induced artefacts on signal feedback, allowing for closed-loop control of epileptic seizures.

Perovskite zinc sulphide phosphors in perovskite-based alternating-current electroluminescent devices are employed as skin-wearable devices with high stretchability, monochromaticity and power efficiency.

Liu et al. developed AI-driven, wearable olfactory interfaces with odor generators for realizing latency-free mixed-reality and fast olfaction recovery. This technology enables personalized olfactory feedback and enhanced virtual environments for various applications including education, and clinical treatment.

Electromagnetic devices involving a vibratory actuator and a soft strain-sensing sheet can dynamically measure the Young’s modulus of skin and of other soft biological tissues at depths of millimetres.

Continuous monitoring of arterial blood pressure is limited by bulky connecting systems and poor interfacial contact. Here, Li et al. report a wearable thin, soft, miniaturized system that integrates sensing, active pressure adaptation, and signal processing for improved performance and accuracy.

Virtual reality technologies need olfactory systems to improve human perception, but their bulky formats limit their practicality. Here, Liu et. al. report flexible and miniaturized odor generators with tunable odor concentration in close user proximity for immersive virtual reality applications.

With a design inspired by wind-dispersed seeds, a series of three-dimensional passive fliers at the macro-, meso- and microscale are realized that can bear active electronic payloads.

Highly stretchable organic electrochemical transistors with stable charge transport under severe tensional strains are demonstrated using a honeycomb semiconducting polymer morphology, thereby enabling controllable signal output for diverse stretchable bioelectronic applications.

Designing energy efficient, flexible opto-electronic systems integrated with textiles remains a challenge. Here, the authors propose a solution-based blow-spinning technique for 3D flexible and stretchable metal oxide nanofiber networks for multimodal and monolithically integrated wearable electronics.

A functional interfacial material has been developed for soft integration of bioelectronic devices with biological tissues. This has been applied in battery-free optoelectronic systems for deep-brain optogenetics and subdermal phototherapy as well as wireless millimetre-scale pacemakers and flexible multielectrode epicardial arrays.

The authors introduce advanced technology for controlled wireless light delivery in optogenetics applications with real-time user programming capacity. The utility of the platform is highlighted by induction of neural synchrony to modify social behavior in mice.

SWNTs have been successfully grafted with polyisoprene (PIp) via anionic polymerization initiated by carbanion-bearing SWNTs. Carbanions were fixed on SWNTs by treating SWNTs with sec-butyllithium, and then the PIp chains grew from these carbanion. The polymer chains were covalently attached to the SWNTs, which leads to the coating of carbon nanotubes and finally to the destruction of the nanotube bundles.

Optical transparency, tunable conducting properties and easy processability make metal oxides key materials for advanced optoelectronic devices. This Review discusses recent advances in the synthesis of these materials and their use in applications.