Visible-Light-Driven Aqueous Polymerization Enables in Situ Formation of Biocompatible, High-Performance Organic Mixed Conductors for BioelectronicsShow others and affiliations
2026 (English)In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition, ISSN 1433-7851, E-ISSN 1521-3773, Vol. 65, no 2, article id e17897Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Polymer-based organic mixed ion-electron conductors (OMIECs) are a class of materials offering unique coupled dual charge transport characteristics along with appealing properties including mechanical softness, biocompatibility, tunability, volumetric capacitance, and stability. These features have been exploited in devices including organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), neuromorphic computing, energy storage, sensors, neural electrodes, and actuators. Conventionally, OMIEC polymers are prepared through chemical, vapor-phase, electrochemical, or enzymatic polymerization, typically relying on oxidants, metal catalysts, and/or organic solvents, significantly limiting their scalability, sustainability, and biocompatibility. Here, we introduce an initiator-free, visible-light-induced polymerization of water-soluble conducting polymer precursors, enabling facile formation of high-performance and inherently biocompatible OMIECs. This novel approach allows direct photopatterning and seamless film deposition and manufacturing of OECTs across rigid, flexible, and biological substrates, exemplified by glass, textiles, and mouse skin (in vivo). Through careful optimization of the photopolymerization process, resulting OMIECs possess state-of-the-art electrical, electrochemical, and device properties along with exceptional compatibility and conformability with various flexible and biological surfaces. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of these photopatterned electrodes, manufactured directly on mouse skin in vivo, where they significantly enhance the recording efficacy and signal-to-noise ratio of low-frequency brain activity in anesthetized mice.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH , 2026. Vol. 65, no 2, article id e17897
Keywords [en]
Bioelectronics; Neural recording; Organic electrochemical transistors; Organic mixed ion-electron conductors; Photopolymerization
National Category
Materials Chemistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-219452DOI: 10.1002/anie.202517897ISI: 001610169100001PubMedID: 41211808Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105021302885OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-219452DiVA, id: diva2:2014237
Note
Funding Agencies|Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research [RMX18-0083]; Vinnova [2024-00598]; European Research Council [834677]; Stig Wadstrms Stiftelse; ke Wiberg Foundation [M23-0151]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; Swedish Government Strategic Research Areas in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkping University [2009-00971]; GACR [24-10775S]; Swedish Research Council [2018-06197, 2022-04807, 2023-03651, 2023-05459]
2025-11-172025-11-172026-05-04