A Silk Fibroin Bio-Transient Solution Processable Memristor

Jason Yong,Babak Nasr,Efstratios Skafidas,Robin Evans,Gary Egan,Gursharan Chana,Kumaravelu Ganesan,You Liang,Omid Kavehei,Ranjith Rajasekharan,Basem Hassan,Jingliang Li

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-15395-5

Abstract

Today’s electronic devices are fabricated using highly toxic materials and processes which limits their applications in environmental sensing applications and mandates complex encapsulation methods in biological and medical applications. This paper proposes a fully resorbable high density bio-compatible and environmentally friendly solution processable memristive crossbar arrays using silk fibroin protein which demonstrated bipolar resistive switching ratio of 104 and possesses programmable device lifetime characteristics before the device gracefully bio-degrades, minimizing impact to environment or to the implanted host. Lactate dehydrogenase assays revealed no cytotoxicity on direct exposure to the fabricated device and support their environmentally friendly and biocompatible claims. Moreover, the correlation between the oxidation state of the cations and their tendency in forming conductive filaments with respect to different active electrode materials has been investigated. The experimental results and the numerical model based on electro-thermal effect shows a tight correspondence in predicting the memristive switching process with various combinations of electrodes which provides insight into the morphological changes of conductive filaments in the silk fibroin films.

Highlights

Today’s electronic devices are fabricated using highly toxic materials and processes which limits their applications in environmental sensing applications and mandates complex encapsulation methods in biological and medical applications
This paper proposes a fully resorbable high density bio-compatible and environmentally friendly solution processable memristive crossbar arrays using silk fibroin protein which demonstrated bipolar resistive switching ratio of 104 and possesses programmable device lifetime characteristics before the device gracefully bio-degrades, minimizing impact to environment or to the implanted host
These new class of devices are capable of robust and reliable operation even when embedded within living tissue, and without causing deleterious inflammatory reactions[1]. They can dissolve away after use, circumventing the need for their retrieval and disposal from the environment or in biological applications removal and reducing risk associated with added surgical procedures. These electronics can be designed with the desirable device lifetime transience via adaptation of the constituent materials, by which they can subsequently resorb through hydrolysis or metabolic action at varying timepoints[1]

Summary

Introduction

Today’s electronic devices are fabricated using highly toxic materials and processes which limits their applications in environmental sensing applications and mandates complex encapsulation methods in biological and medical applications. There have been many attractive reports of biocompatible and bio-resorbable transient integrated electronics where silk fibroin has been used as passive component It has been employed as substrate or conformal platform in the building of functional solid-state devices such as transistors, RFIDs and micro electrode arrays in field of bioresorbable, implantable applications[3,4]. We demonstrate for the first time a fully bioresorbable high density memristor configured as crossbar arrays which is fabricated on solution processable substrate, Poly-(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) This class of memristor provides a completely water soluble and fully resorbable component for emerging implantable and/or disposable electronics.

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Conclusion