{"id":240691,"date":"2026-07-12T07:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/mit-engineers-whip-up-a-more-breathable-hydrogel"},"modified":"2026-07-12T07:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:03:08","slug":"mit-engineers-whip-up-a-more-breathable-hydrogel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/mit-engineers-whip-up-a-more-breathable-hydrogel","title":{"rendered":"MIT engineers whip up a more breathable hydrogel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/mit-engineers-whip-up-a-more-breathable-hydrogel.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For all their sticky, stretchy, and protective properties, hydrogels lack one key trait: breathability. If worn for too long, a bandage or patch can trap moisture and sweat, which can irritate tissues and reduce the effectiveness of any device that a hydrogel adheres.<\/p>\n<p>Now MIT engineers have come up with a recipe for a hydrogel that is both hydrated and aerated, or permeable to air. The new material is just as soft, stretchy, and robust as conventional hydrogels, but a network of tiny tunnels running through the gel allows air to pass through.<\/p>\n<p>The aerated hydrogel can be worn for longer periods of time compared to conventional hydrogels, without causing skin irritation. It can also reduce sweat buildup, even during exercise. In experiments, volunteers wore wireless heart monitors that were attached to their chest with the new breathable hydrogel. After working out regularly for 10 days, the volunteers showed no signs of skin irritation, and the heart monitors maintained clear readings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For all their sticky, stretchy, and protective properties, hydrogels lack one key trait: breathability. If worn for too long, a bandage or patch can trap moisture and sweat, which can irritate tissues and reduce the effectiveness of any device that a hydrogel adheres. Now MIT engineers have come up with a recipe for a hydrogel [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1495,1635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}