Soft hydrogel semiconductors with augmented biointeractive functions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dai, Yahao; Wai, Shinya; Li, Pengju; Shan, Naisong; Cao, Zhiqiang; Li, Yang; Wang, Yunfei; Liu, Youdi; Liu, Wei; Tang, Kan; Liu, Yuzi; Hua, Muchuan; Li, Songsong; Li, Nan; Chatterji, Shivani; Fry, H. Christopher; Lee, Sean; Zhang, Cheng; Weires, Max; Sutyak, Sean; Shi, Jiuyun; Zhu, Chenhui; Xu, Jie; Gu, Xiaodan; Tian, Bozhi; Wang, Sihong
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; University of Southern Mississippi; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Argonne National Laboratory; University of Chicago; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Argonne National Laboratory; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Argonne National Laboratory
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-13997
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adp9314
• 发表日期: 2024-10-25
• 页码: 431-439
• 关键词: side-chains; polymeric semiconductors; conjugated polymers; molecular design; stretchability; transistors; mobility; BEHAVIOR; films

摘要

Hydrogels, known for their mechanical and chemical similarity to biological tissues, are widely used in biotechnologies, whereas semiconductors provide advanced electronic and optoelectronic functionalities such as signal amplification, sensing, and photomodulation. Combining semiconducting properties with hydrogel designs can enhance biointeractive functions and intimacy at biointerfaces, but this is challenging owing to the low hydrophilicity of polymer semiconductors. We developed a solvent affinity-induced assembly method that incorporates water-insoluble polymer semiconductors into double-network hydrogels. These semiconductors exhibited tissue-level moduli as soft as 81 kilopascals, stretchability of 150% strain, and charge-carrier mobility up to 1.4 square centimeters per volt per second. When they are interfaced with biological tissues, their tissue-level modulus enables alleviated immune reactions. The hydrogel's high porosity enhances molecular interactions at semiconductor-biofluid interfaces, resulting in photomodulation with higher response and volumetric biosensing with higher sensitivity.