Filament Engineering of Two-Dimensional h-BN for a Self-Power Mechano-Nociceptor System

The switching variability caused by intrinsic stochasticity of the ionic/atomic motions during the conductive filaments (CFs) formation process largely limits the applications of diffusive memristors (DMs), including artificial neurons, neuromorphic computing and artificial sensory systems. In this study, a DM device with improved device uniformity based on well-crystallized two-dimensional (2D) h-BN, which can restrict the CFs formation from three to two dimensions due to the high migration barrier of Ag⁺ between h-BN interlayer, is developed. The BN-DM has potential arrayable feature with high device yield of 88%, which can be applied for building a reservoir computing system for digital pattern recognition with high accuracy rate of 96%, and used as an artificial nociceptor to sense the external noxious stimuli and mimic the important biological nociceptor properties. By connecting the BN-DM to a self-made triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), a self-power mechano-nociceptor system, which can successfully mimic the important nociceptor features of "threshold", "relaxation" and "allodynia" is designed.