Biocompatible AlOOH-based memristor with biomimicking synaptic functions for artificial nociceptor applications

Abstract

Electronic devices with biomimetic synaptic characteristics are one of the most critical components in health monitoring and artificial intelligence. The design of neuromorphic responsive devices, however, yet remains a ground challenge. Herein, a biocompatible and electrically responsive boehmite material (γ-AlOOH) is utilized to fabricate artificial memristors to realize mimicking biological synapsefunctions. The obtained AlOOH memristor is flexible, highly transparent, and biocompatible, exhibiting nonvolatile resistive switching behaviours with low threshold voltages, high ON-OFF ratios (>103), good switching durability (>104 cycles), and long retention time (>104 s). Specifically, the device can mimic the biosynaptic functions, such as paired-pulse facilitation (PPF), long-term potentiation/depression (LTP/LTD), amplitude-dependent plasticity (SADP), and spike time dependent plasticity (STDP), and the typical sensitization, desensitization, hyperalgesia, and allodynia behaviours of the biological nociceptors. This study reveals that the AlOOH memristor with excellent artificial synapses is resulted by the high proton mobility along with the OH bond length variation of AlOOH subjected to applied stimuli, such as voltages, pulse width, and pulse intervals. Therefore, the biocompatible AlOOH-based memristors with artificial synapse behaviour have promising potential for the applications in high-performance neuromorphic devices and future artificial intelligence.