Microscale droplet assembly enables biocompatible multifunctional modular iontronics
Hydrogel iontronic devices can emulate biological functions and communicate with living matter. But the fabrication of miniature, soft iontronic devices according to modular designs has not been achieved. In this work, we report the use of surfactant-supported assembly of freestanding microscale hydrogel droplets to construct various iontronic modules, circuits, and biointerfaces. Chemical modifications of silk fibroin produced a pair of oppositely charged hydrogels. Microscale assembly of various combinations of hydrogel droplets produced iontronic diodes, npn- and pnp-type transistors, and diverse reconfigurable logic gates. Through the incorporation of poly(amino acid)s, we have demonstrated a droplet-based synthetic synapse with ionic polymer-mediated long-term plasticity. Further, our iontronic transistor can serve as a biocompatible sensor to record electrophysiological signals from sheets of human cardiomyocytes, paving a way to the building of miniature bioiontronic systems.
WOS:001433502400010
39607936
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
University of Oxford
University of Oxford
University of Oxford
University of Oxford
2024-11-29
386
6725
1024
1030
REVIEWED
EPFL
| Funder | Funding(s) | Grant Number | Grant URL |
John Fell Oxford University Press Research Fund | 0011303;0013171 | ||
European Research Council (ERC) | |||
European Research Council Proof of Concept grant (BIOELECTRIC ) | |||
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