journal article·2026-03

Actively Deployable Balloon Electrodes with High Omnidirectional Stretchability for Enhanced Interfacing with Luminal Organs

Mei Yu, Haoshi Zhang, Qianhengyuan Yu, Jianping Huang, Hanfei Li, Hang Zhao, Zijian Yang, Fei Han, Jing Sun, Bowen Gu, Guangfa Xiang, Chenyang Li, Huan Yu, Wen Hou, Yang Zhao, Qiong Tian, Guanglin Li, Zhiyuan Liu, Qingsong Li

Advanced Functional Materials· Volume 36· Issue 24
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Abstract

Abstract Luminal organs such as the gastrointestinal tract, auditory canal, and urogenital tract exhibit complex, folded, and dynamic architectures, presenting significant challenges for stable and conformal electrophysiological monitoring. Conventional soft electrodes, while effective on flat surfaces, often fail to adapt to the deep‐seated, narrow, and irregular environments of endoluminal tissues. Here, a balloon electrode incorporating a semi‐embedded Ag–Au core–shell nanowire (Ag@AuNW) composite is developed to enable active and reversible interfacing with endoluminal tissues of various sizes. The Ag@AuNW composite is fabricated using tape‐assisted masking and vacuum filtration, followed by partial embedding in elastomer to form a percolated conductive network with high conductivity, mechanical durability, chemical stability, and omnidirectional stretchability (600% area strain). When integrated onto a catheter, the balloon electrode undergoes a reversible tubular‐to‐balloon transformation during inflation, actively expanding to conform to folded tissue surfaces and reduce interfacial impedance. It maintains stable electro‐mechanical performance over 1000 inflation‐deflation cycles. For proof‐of‐concept, the device is deployed into human ear canals and rabbit vaginas, where it achieves conformal adaptation and enables the acquisition of high‐quality electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) signals, outperforming conventional electrodes. These results highlight the potential of an omnidirectionally stretchable balloon electrode for minimally invasive, high‐fidelity electrophysiological monitoring within complex luminal organs.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials · Nanomaterials and Printing Technologies · Advanced Materials and Mechanics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Neural Engineering Center Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Shenzhen 518055 China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 101408 China

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Multimodality Non‐Invasive Brain‐Computer Interfaces Shenzhen 518055 China

Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China · National Natural Science Foundation of China · Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province · Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Program

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