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research article

From Food to Power: Hydrogel Thermoelectrics for Ingestible Electronics

Georgopoulou, Antonia  
•
Kwak, Bokeon  
•
Floreano, Dario  
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January 28, 2026
Advanced Functional Materials

Edible electronics present new opportunities for food-integrated sensing and monitoring, yet powering such devices safely and effectively remains a major challenge. Here, we introduce a fully edible thermoelectric-electrochromic platform capable of converting heat from food into a visually perceptible color change, such that this platform can be used for real-time temperature monitoring. TEGs are fabricated from vanillin-crosslinked chitosan and alginate hydrogels functionalized with potassium chloride used as an electrolyte. Positively charged chitosan acts as a p-type hydrogel, whereas the negatively charged alginate serves as an n-type hydrogel. To increase the voltage of the edible device, we connect multiple p-and n-type hydrogels in series. The resulting TEGs successfully drive anthocyanin-functionalized, gelatin-based electrochromic displays that are purple at room temperature and blue when the temperature exceeds 45°C. Transient heat sources, such as a freshly heated cake, are sufficient to trigger the color change. This work demonstrates that fully edible materials can be engineered to harvest thermal energy and convert it into a visible signal. The platform establishes a foundation for safe, biodegradable, and ingestible devices for on-food monitoring, transient electronics, and food safety applications, offering a new approach to integrate sensing and display functionalities in edible systems.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1002/adfm.202525982
Author(s)
Georgopoulou, Antonia  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Kwak, Bokeon  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Floreano, Dario  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Amstad, Esther  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Date Issued

2026-01-28

Publisher

Wiley

Published in
Advanced Functional Materials
Subjects

edible electronics

•

electrochromic materials

•

hydrogels

•

thermoelectrics

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
SMAL  
LIS  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

European Union’s Horizon 2020 researchand innovation program

RoboFood

96459

https://www.robofood.org/
Available on Infoscience
February 2, 2026
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/258768
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