MXene- and MOF-Based Hydrogels: Emerging Platforms for Electrochemical Biosensing and Health Monitoring

TL;DR

This paper reviews how MXene and MOF-based hydrogels are being developed for electrochemical biosensing in smart healthcare, focusing on their design, performance, and future potential.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive and critical comparison of MXene and MOF-integrated hydrogels for electrochemical health monitoring.

Findings

Conductive hydrogels with MXene and MOFs show improved electrochemical performance and biocompatibility.

Data-driven approaches are emerging to enhance signal interpretation and multi-analyte discrimination in these systems.

Challenges include long-term stability, scalability, and integration into intelligent systems.

Abstract

Smart healthcare is rapidly emerging as a transformative paradigm, enabling simultaneous health monitoring, therapeutic intervention, and early prediction of disease onset. In this context, electrochemical monitoring systems have attracted growing interest due to their cost-effectiveness, ease of operation, miniaturization and compatibility with wearable platforms. Accordingly, conductive hydrogel-based electrochemical (bio)sensors have gained significant attention for health monitoring owing to their soft mechanical properties, high water content, excellent biocompatibility, and ability to form intimate, conformal interfaces with biological tissues. Their three-dimensional polymeric networks facilitate efficient ion transport and mechanical flexibility, making them particularly suitable for wearable and noninvasive sensing and monitoring applications. However, the intrinsically limited conductivity and catalytic activity of pristine hydrogels often constrain their electrochemical performance. To overcome these limitations, functional nanomaterials such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and MXene (MX) nanosheets have been increasingly integrated into hydrogel matrices to enhance conductivity and electrochemical activity. This review provides a comprehensive and critical comparison of recent advances in MOF- and MX-integrated conductive hydrogels for electrochemical health monitoring. In addition to material design strategies and sensing performance, emerging trends in data-driven sensing aimed at improving signal interpretation and multi-analyte discrimination are systematically discussed. Key challenges related to long-term stability, biocompatibility, scalability, and intelligent system integration are critically assessed, and the future potential of these platforms within closed-loop architectures is highlighted, paving the way for next-generation conductive hydrogel-based electrochemical sensors in smart healthcare applications.

Figures