Emerging material interest in bioelectronic applications has highlighted natural melanin and its derivatives as promising alternatives to conventional synthetic conductors. These materials, traditionally noted for their adhesive, antioxidant, biocompatible, and biodegradable properties, have barely been used as conductors due to their extremely low electrical activities. However, recent studies have demonstrated good conductive properties in melanin materials that promote electronic-ionic hybrid charge transfer, attributed to the formation of an extended conjugated backbone. This review examines the multifunctional properties of melanin materials, focusing on their chemical and electrochemical synthesis and their resulting structure-property-function relationship. The wide range of bioelectronic applications will also be presented to highlight their importance and potential to expand into new design concepts for high-performance electronic functional materials. The review concludes by addressing the current challenges in utilizing melanin for biodegradable bioelectronics, providing a perspective on future developments.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.4c00494 | DOI Listing |
Acc Chem Res
December 2024
Tarpo Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
ConspectusOrganic mixed ionic electronic conductors (OMIECs) represent an exciting and emerging class of materials that have recently revitalized the field of organic semiconductors. OMIECs are particularly attractive because they allow both ionic and electronic transport while retaining the inherent benefits of organic semiconducting materials such as mechanical conformability and biocompatibility. These combined properties make the OMIECs ideal for applications in bioelectronics, energy storage, neuromorphic computing, and electrochemical transistors for sensing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Biomed Eng
December 2024
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
December 2024
Department of Physics and Centre for Processable Electronics, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, London, United Kingdom.
Conjugated polymers (CPs) with polar side chains can conduct electronic and ionic charges simultaneously, making them promising for bioelectronics, electrocatalysis and energy storage. Recent work showed that adding alkyl spacers between CP backbones and polar side chains improved electronic charge carrier mobility, reduced swelling and enhanced stability, without compromising ion transport. However, how alkyl spacers impact polymer backbone conformation and, subsequently, electronic properties remain unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAIChE J
December 2024
Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Wearable heart monitors are crucial for early diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases in non-clinical settings. However, their long-term applications require skin-interfaced materials that are ultrasoft, breathable, antibacterial, and possess robust, enduring on-skin adherence-features that remain elusive. Here, we have developed multifunctional porous soft composites that meet all these criteria for skin-interfaced bimodal cardiac monitoring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Mater
December 2024
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics, Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330013, P. R. China.
Conductive hydrogels combine the benefits of soft hydrogels with electrical conductivity and have gained significant attention over the past decade. These innovative materials, including poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOTs)-based conductive hydrogels (P-CHs), are promising for flexible electronics and biological applications due to their tunable flexibility, biocompatibility, and hydrophilicity. Despite the recent advances, the intrinsic correlation between the design, fabrications, and applications of P-CHs has been mostly based on trial-and-error-based Edisonian approaches, significantly limiting their further development.
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