Soft hydrogel semiconductors with augmented biointeractive functions
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.
Authors
- Muchuan Hua (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3218-5591)
- H. Christopher Fry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8343-5189)
- Jiuyun Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1949-0348)
- Naisong Shan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1476-6539)
- Shivani Chatterji
- Jie Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7842-5496)
- Bozhi Tian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0593-0023)
- Youdi Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0100-1693)
- Yahao Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6393-5514)
- Wei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1207-204X)
- Pengju Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0327-4758)
- Yuzi Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8733-1683)
- Chenhui Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1263-5065)
- Kan Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0012-0224)
- Zhiqiang Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4439-4414)
- Sihong Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3611-0004)
- Shinya Wai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8973-1923)
- Sean Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7903-637X)
- Xiaodan Gu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1123-3673)
- Max Weires
- Nan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3614-9558)
- Yunfei Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7555-5308)
- Yang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1912-1438)
- Songsong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9784-2877)
- Cheng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3026-1159)
- Sean Sutyak
Institutions
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- University of Southern Mississippi (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2024-10-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp9314
- Citations
- 111
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 20.47