Recent Progress in High-Performance Conductive Hydrogels for Wearable Sensors

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Hydrogel materials are regarded as an ideal platform for constructing next-generation high-performance, bio-integrated wearable sensors due to their unique softness, high water content, excellent biocompatibility, and tunable conductivity. This review aims to systematically summarize recent advances in the field, providing a comprehensive exploration of the entire technical pathway—from material design and performance regulation to device integration and application. We first analyze optimization strategies for key properties of hydrogels—such as conductivity, self-healing, adhesion, and environmental stability—through approaches like nanocomposite integration and dynamic cross-linking. And we further discuss advanced fabrication techniques, including the construction of hybrid physical–chemical cross-linking networks and 3D printing. In addition, we categorize five types of hydrogel sensors—resistive, capacitive, piezoelectric, triboelectric, and electrochemical—based on their sensing mechanisms, detailing their working principles and performance characteristics. Finally, this review outlines their specific applications in cutting-edge fields such as physiological monitoring, human–machine interaction, and implantable medical devices. Research findings demonstrate that hydrogel sensors can balance flexibility and sensing performance under moderate strain levels (100–200%) and controlled hydration conditions, whereas extreme deformation or prolonged exposure to dry environments often leads to signal drift or mechanical degradation enabling strain and pressure sensing with reported gauge factors typically ranging from ~2 to 100, detectable pressure ranges from a few Pa to hundreds of kPa, and operational lifetimes from hours to several weeks depending on encapsulation and environment. Received: 9 December 2025 | Revised: 27 January 2026 | Accepted: 12 March 2026 Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study. Author Contribution Statement Jianrui Zhao: Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Qingwang Liu: Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Xinzu Yue: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Resources. Weibao Wang: Resources. Weiwei Zhang: Resources. Xinning Liu: Resources. Guoshen Yang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Resources, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

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