Abstract
Light-activated biointerfaces provide a non-genetic route for effective control of neural activity. InP quantum dots (QDs) have a high potential for such biomedical applications due to their uniquely tunable electronic properties, photostability, toxic-heavy-metal-free content, heterostructuring, and solution-processing ability. However, the effect of QD nanostructure and biointerface architecture on the photoelectrical cellular interfacing remained unexplored. Here, we unravel the control of the photoelectrical response of InP QD-based biointerfaces via nanoengineering from QD to device-level. At QD level, thin ZnS shell growth (∼0.65 nm) enhances the current level of biointerfaces over an order of magnitude with respect to only InP core QDs. At device-level, band alignment engineering allows for the bidirectional photoelectrochemical current generation, which enables light-induced temporally precise and rapidly reversible action potential generation and hyperpolarization on primary hippocampal neurons. Our findings show that nanoengineering QD-based biointerfaces hold great promise for next-generation neurostimulation devices.
Highlights
Neural stimulation offers an effective therapeutic method for the treatment of various health problems
One of the major challenges of quantum dots (QDs)-based neural interfaces is the use of toxic heavy metal content QDs
InP-based QDs show a promising nontoxic alternative to be used for neural interfaces owing to the composition of III–V elements with covalent bonds in their structure and not containing highly toxic elemental compounds (Bharali et al, 2005)
Summary
Neural stimulation offers an effective therapeutic method for the treatment of various health problems. The conventional way for stimulation of neural tissues is through electrical stimulation. Photoactive Biointerfaces for Optical Control of Neurons (PEDOT), have been used for electrical stimulation of neurons and for recording the electrophysiological activity (Cogan, 2008). Improving the feasibility of such electrodes, while discovering alternative ones for more effective stimulation and recording, has been a topic under extensive research. Electrical stimulation has several drawbacks including mechanical instability, invasiveness of electrodes, and surgical difficulties due to electrical components
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