Rewiring Droplet Interface Synapses

Neuromorphic (or brain‐inspired) materials take inspiration from the adaptive architecture of the brain in developing novel materials that exhibit a form of memory through evolving properties. These neuromorphic materials are currently being explored as alternative computational materials aiming to address bottlenecks restricting computational efficiency. While recreating the full complexities of the brain itself is beyond the capabilities of current neuromorphic devices, several biomolecular platforms have been proposed as artificial synapses using the droplet interface bilayer (DIB) technique. DIBs form lipid membranes within a liquid‐in‐liquid platform, producing dynamic, adaptive membrane interfaces. These membranes exhibit both memristance and memcapacitance, two of the fundamental properties in neuromorphic circuitry. In this research, a DIB‐based artificial synapse is repeatedly formed and separated to mimic synaptic rewiring. This is accomplished using two parallel sets of membranes that contract together when a voltage is applied. Each pathway contains a droplet capable of trapping charge, which in turn modifies the wetting characteristics and adhered geometry of the structure. Functionalizing the droplets produces a tunable bridge membrane, which illustrates how trapped charge in biomolecular networks may be used to influence interfacial characteristics for dynamic droplet architectures and neuromorphic materials.