Chronic wound management: a liquid diode-based smart bandage with ultrasensitive pH sensing ability

Chronic wounds, which require prolonged healing periods, pose significant impacts on individuals with diabetes, vascular diseases, and high blood pressure. Simultaneous drainage and monitoring of wound exudate are vital for advanced wound management. However, recently reported smart dressings either lack integration of wound cleaning and monitoring functions or fail to achieve dynamic in situ monitoring of wound status, which hinders their ability to meet the demands of wound care. In this study, a smart bandage is introduced, which integrates a biocompatible liquid diode membrane with an ultrasensitive 3D polyaniline mesh (M-PANI)-based pH biosensor. The smart bandage allows for unidirectional drainage of wound exudate while dynamically sensing the wound pH environment. Specifically, the proposed smart bandage effectively cleans excessive wound exudate while providing real-time information on the wound status during the drainage process. The M-PANI-based pH biosensor demonstrates a high sensitivity of 61.5 mV/pH and a wide pH detection range from 4.0 to 10.0, encompassing the pH range of normal and infected wounds. Moreover, the sensing module exhibits excellent stability after 48 hours of dynamic testing and 28 days of storage, with only a 4.8% decline in the detected signal, and high repeatability with a device-to-device relative standard deviation (RSD) of 3.1%. To evaluate the practicality of this smart bandage, simulated skin and rats have been employed, and the results indicate the immense potential of this smart bandage for clinical applications. In conclusion, the present smart bandage demonstrates considerable promise for wound exudate cleaning and monitoring in advanced wound care and offers a promising method for home-based wound management.