Key Trends and Insights in Smart Polymeric Skin Wearable Patches

Abstract

Smart polymers, also known as intelligent or stimuli‐responsive polymers, play a crucial role in the development of advanced wearable patches due to their versatility and softness. There exist numerous intelligent polymers, whose ability to respond to a wide variety of physical and biological stimuli makes them highly valuable in the design of smart wearable skin patches. Such patches can mimic biological processes and respond to specific biological conditions, enabling less invasive clinical therapies. This review article collects examples of polymers with response to temperature, pH, light, electrical and magnetic fields, mechanical forces, ultrasound, reactive oxygen species, and enzymatic stimuli. Furthermore, the processing of these intelligent polymers using clinically relevant additive manufacturing methods, such as 3D printing, to engineer conformable and personalized wearable patches is also addressed. Finally, the cutting‐edge applications and future prospects of smart polymer patches in the biomedical field (i.e., soft robotics, wound healing, cancer treatment, etc.) are highlighted.