Functional biomaterials towards flexible electronics and sensors

Biomaterials have gained increasing attention in the fabrication of a variety of flexible electronics due to their tunable solubility, robust mechanical property, multi-active binding sites, and excellent biocompatible and biodegradable characterization as well. Here, we review the recent progress of bio-based materials in flexible sensors, mainly describe nature biomaterials (silk fibroin, cellulose and chitin) and chemical-synthesized biomaterials as well as their applications in health monitors, biosensor, human-machine interactions (HMIs) and more, and highlight the current opportunities and challenges that lay ahead in mounting numbers of academia and industry. Furthermore, we expect this review could contribute to unveiling the potentials of developing outstanding and eco-friendly sensors with biomaterials by utilization of printing techniques. •Nature and chemical-synthesized biomaterials have attracted increasing attention in the fields of flexible electronics and sensors.•Biomaterials-based flexible electronics and sensors have been widely studied with the potential in health monitors, flexible displays, human-machine interactions (HMIs), and artificial intelligence (AI).•Room-temperature printing opens a new way to fabricate electronics on a large scale of flexible substrates with low cost, high resolution and excellent performance.