Research on Multi-Dimensional Bionic Design of Flexible ECG Electrodes for Wearable Monitoring

With the rapid advancement of wearable medical technologies, long-term, dynamic, non-invasive high-precision electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring has emerged as a critical requirement across clinical and civilian healthcare domains in both clinical and civilian applications. However, conventional Ag/AgCl wet electrodes and common flexible dry electrodes suffer from critical limitations, including high electrode–skin interfacial impedance, severe motion artifacts, inadequate biocompatibility, and poor long-term wearing comfort, which severely restrict their practical performance. The performance improvement of ECG electrodes relies on the synergistic realization of low interfacial impedance, strong anti-interference capability, excellent biocompatibility, and satisfactory long-term wearability. Biomimetic design provides a pivotal strategy for addressing the incompatibilities at the electrode–skin interface and breaking through the performance bottlenecks of traditional electrodes. This paper systematically reviews the fundamental theories and key design principles of biomimetic ECG electrodes, and elaborates the biomimetic prototypes, design mechanisms, and typical application cases from five core perspectives: structural biomimetics, interfacial biomimetics, mechanical biomimetics, functional biomimetics, and material biomimetics. Furthermore, the application progress of biomimetic electrodes in civil wearable devices, clinical monitoring, and special scenarios is summarized, together with an analysis of the current industrialization layout and patent status. Finally, future development trends are prospected, including multi-dimensional synergistic biomimetics, intelligent biomimetics, green biomimetics, clinical-grade biomimetics, and low-cost scalable fabrication. This review supplies systematic theoretical underpinnings and practical guidance for the design optimization, performance enhancement, and industrial application of biomimetic ECG electrodes, and is of great significance for promoting the evolution of ECG monitoring toward high precision, long-term operation, and convenient utilization.