Electro-Optic Optimization of Porcine Collagen through Protein-Amicable Supercritical Treatment

Abstract

The advanced field of bioelectronics bridges the electronic world and biological systems, opening a new area for More than Moore and stirring a wave of exploration in biomaterials. However, previously reported biomaterials usually suffer from poor purity and inferior electro-optic performance, discouraging their further development in bioelectronics. Here, porcine collagen extracted from pigskin through supercritical carbon dioxide is utilized as a dielectric layer in capacitors. A protein-amicable and low-temperature supercritical fluid (LT-SCF) strategy is also explored to enhance the electro-optic figure of merits. With the assistance of supercritical CO2 fluids, free amino acids that might have a detrimental effect on the electro-optic performance of the devices have been eliminated. After LT-SCF, the electrical characteristics involving current–voltage and capacitance–voltage become more stable. The leakage currents of capacitors treated with LT-SCF drop by 15 times. The capacitance and conductance also have declining tendencies, contributing to reduced power consumption. Regarding optical characteristics, transparency and refractive index are also substantially enhanced. And numerous material analyses further verify the role of supercritical CO2 fluids. More notably, the biodegradability of collagen films can be achieved with fast water dissolution. Overall, this low-temperature and protein-amicable supercritical fluid technology brings endless possibilities to explore collagen-based bioelectronics.