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Water-responsive supercontractile polymer films for bioelectronic interfaces.

Junqi Yi1,2, Guijin Zou3, Jianping Huang4

  • 1Innovative Center for Flexible Devices (iFLEX), Max Planck-NTU Joint Lab for Artificial Senses, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.

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Researchers developed water-responsive polymer films inspired by spider silk. These supercontractile films rapidly shrink when wet, forming soft, stretchable hydrogels ideal for next-generation tissue-electronics interfaces.

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Area of Science:

  • Biomaterials Science
  • Materials Engineering
  • Bioelectronics

Background:

  • Standardized interfaces simplify electronic device connection but are unsuitable for soft, irregularly shaped biological tissues.
  • Existing shape-adaptive materials like heat-shrink films are too hard and require high temperatures, making them incompatible with biological applications.
  • Developing stimuli-responsive materials with properties suitable for both biological tissues and electronic integration remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To design and synthesize novel water-responsive supercontractile polymer films for advanced tissue-electronics interfaces.
  • To create a material that exhibits rapid, large contractions upon wetting and possesses mechanical properties compatible with biological tissues.
  • To demonstrate the utility of these films in fabricating shape-adaptive electrode arrays for in vivo applications.

Main Methods:

  • Inspired by spider silk, a polymer film was engineered using poly(ethylene oxide) and a poly(ethylene glycol)-α-cyclodextrin inclusion complex.
  • The film's supercontraction mechanism was investigated, attributed to its aligned microporous hierarchical structures.
  • Shape-adaptive electrode arrays were fabricated using the supercontractile films for implantation and conformal wrapping around biological targets.

Main Results:

  • The developed films exhibit supercontraction, shrinking over 50% in length within seconds upon wetting.
  • Post-contraction, the films transform into soft (approx. 100 kPa) and highly stretchable (approx. 600%) hydrogel thin films.
  • The films facilitated conformal wrapping around various organs (nerves, muscles, heart) and enabled in vivo nerve stimulation and electrophysiological recording.

Conclusions:

  • Water-responsive supercontractile polymer films offer a promising solution for next-generation tissue-electronics interfaces.
  • The material's properties enable simplified implantation and conformal integration with diverse biological tissues.
  • This technology broadens the application of shape-adaptive materials in biomedicine and bioelectronics.