Hydrogels, as classic soft materials, are important materials for tissue engineering and biosensing with unique properties, such as good biocompatibility, high stretchability, strong adhesion, excellent self-healing, and self-recovery. Conductive hydrogels possess the additional property of conductivity, which endows them with advanced applications in actuating devices, biomedicine, and sensing. In this review, we provide an overview of the recent development of conductive hydrogels in the field of strain sensors, with particular focus on the types of conductive fillers, including ionic conductors, conducting nanomaterials, and conductive polymers. The synthetic methods of such conductive hydrogel materials and their physical and chemical properties are highlighted. At last, challenges and future perspectives of conductive hydrogels applied in flexible strain sensors are discussed.
Keywords: conductivity; flexible strain sensor; hydrogel; stretchability.