A Porphyrin-Based Textile Memristor With Low Power and High Switching Ratio as an Artificial Synapse for Neuromorphic...

Memristors based on green organic materials are needed for advanced wearable neuromorphic computing electronics and to facilitate the development of ecologically benign bioelectronics. Porphyrins, as conjugated macrocyclic green organic compounds, exhibit good biocompatibility and chemical stability and have been employed as the resistive switching (RS) layer in memristors. However, achieving low power consumption and a high switching ratio remains a challenge for the development of porphyrin-based memristors as synaptic devices. Furthermore, their fabrication is typically complex and relies on a rigid or flexible planar substrate. We developed a Cu(II) meso-tetra(4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (CuTCPP)-based textile memristor that uses the electrophoretic deposition-assisted self-assembly method. The CuTCPP-based memristor exhibited excellent RS characteristics including an ultra-low RS reset voltage (-0.037 V), high switching ratio (∼5 × 10⁷), low set energy (456.52 fJ), good cycling stability, and data retention performance. The CuTCPP-based memristor emulated numerous biological synaptic functions and demonstrated its capability in performing the four fundamental arithmetic operations and digit image recognition. We used the CuTCPP-based memristor to construct a light-pressure-temperature sensing system to assist the visually impaired with recognizing Braille. The research is expected to lay the foundation for the development of wearable neuromorphic computing electronics and next-generation in-memory computing textile systems.