| 1. |
- Parker, Daniela, et al.
(författare)
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Biohybrid plants with electronic roots via in vivo polymerization of conjugated oligomers
- 2021
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Ingår i: Materials Horizons. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2051-6347 .- 2051-6355. ; 8:12, s. 3295-3305
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plant processes, ranging from photosynthesis through production of biomaterials to environmental sensing and adaptation, can be used in technology via integration of functional materials and devices. Previously, plants with integrated organic electronic devices and circuits distributed in their vascular tissue and organs have been demonstrated. To circumvent biological barriers, and thereby access the internal tissue, plant cuttings were used, which resulted in biohybrids with limited lifetime and use. Here, we report intact plants with electronic functionality that continue to grow and develop enabling plant-biohybrid systems that fully maintain their biological processes. The biocatalytic machinery of the plant cell wall was leveraged to seamlessly integrate conductors with mixed ionic-electronic conductivity along the root system of the plants. Cell wall peroxidases catalyzed ETE-S polymerization while the plant tissue served as the template, organizing the polymer in a favorable manner. The conductivity of the resulting p(ETE-S) roots reached the order of 10 S cm(-1) and remained stable over the course of 4 weeks while the roots continued to grow. The p(ETE-S) roots were used to build supercapacitors that outperform previous plant-biohybrid charge storage demonstrations. Plants were not affected by the electronic functionalization but adapted to this new hybrid state by developing a more complex root system. Biohybrid plants with electronic roots pave the way for autonomous systems with potential applications in energy, sensing and robotics.
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| 2. |
- Delavari, Najmeh, et al.
(författare)
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Water Intake and Ion Exchange in PEDOT:Tos Films upon Cyclic Voltammetry: Experimental and Molecular Dynamics Investigation
- 2021
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Ingår i: Macromolecules. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 0024-9297 .- 1520-5835. ; 54:13, s. 6552-6562
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Conductive polymer PEDOT:Tos (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene doped with molecular tosylate) gained considerable attention in various devices for bioelectronic applications, such as organic transistors and sensors. Many of these devices function upon oxidation/reduction processes in contact with aqueous electrolytes. So far, theoretical insight into morphological changes, ion injection, and water intake during these processes was rather limited. In the present work, we combined experiments and molecular dynamics simulations to study the water intake, swelling, and exchange of ions in the PEDOT:Tos film during cyclic voltammetry. We showed that the film underwent significant changes in morphology and mass during the redox processes. We observed both experimentally and in simulations that the film lost its mass during reduction, as tosylate and Na were expelled and gained mass during oxidation mainly due to the uptake of anions, i.e., tosylate and Cl. The results were in line with the UV-VIS-NIR absorption measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements, which revealed that during the redox process a portion of Tos was replaced by Cl- as the counterion for PEDOT. Also, the relative mass change between the most oxidized and reduced states was similar to 10 to 14% according to both experiments and simulations. We detected an overall material loss of the film during voltammetry cycles indicating that a portion of the material leaving the film during reduction did not return to the film during the consecutive oxidation. Our combined experimental/simulation study unraveled the underlying molecular processes in the PEDOT:Tos film upon the redox process, providing the essential understanding needed to improve and assess the performance of bioelectronic devices.
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| 3. |
- Diacci, Chiara, et al.
(författare)
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Diurnal in vivo xylem sap glucose and sucrose monitoring using implantable organic electrochemical transistor sensors
- 2021
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Ingår i: iScience. - : Cell Press. - 2589-0042. ; 24:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bioelectronic devices that convert biochemical signals to electronic readout enable biosensing with high spatiotemporal resolution. These technologies have been primarily applied in biomedicine while in plants sensing is mainly based on invasive methods that require tissue sampling, hindering in-vivo detection and having poor spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we developed enzymatic biosensors based on organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) for in-vivo and real-time monitoring of sugar fluctuations in the vascular tissue of trees. The glucose and sucrose OECT-biosensors were implanted into the vascular tissue of trees and were operated through a low-cost portable unit for 48hr. Our work consists a proof-of-concept study where implantable OECT-biosensors not only allow real-time monitoring of metabolites in plants but also reveal new insights into diurnal sugar homeostasis. We anticipate that this work will contribute to establishing bioelectronic technologies as powerful minimally invasive tools in plant science, agriculture and forestry.
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| 4. |
- Moser, Maximilian, et al.
(författare)
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Controlling Electrochemically Induced Volume Changes in Conjugated Polymers by Chemical Design : from Theory to Devices
- 2021
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Ingår i: Advanced Functional Materials. - : Wiley. - 1616-301X .- 1616-3028. ; n/a:n/a
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Electrochemically induced volume changes in organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) are particularly important for their use in dynamic microfiltration systems, biomedical machinery, and electronic devices. Although significant advances have been made to maximize the dimensional changes that can be accomplished by OMIECs, there is currently limited understanding of how changes in their molecular structures impact their underpinning fundamental processes and their performance in electronic devices. Herein, a series of ethylene glycol functionalized conjugated polymers is synthesized, and their electromechanical properties are evaluated through a combined approach of experimental measurements and molecular dynamics simulations. As demonstrated, alterations in the molecular structure of OMIECs impact numerous processes occurring during their electrochemical swelling, with sidechain length shortening decreasing the number of incorporated water molecules, reducing the generated void volumes and promoting the OMIECs to undergo different phase transitions. Ultimately, the impact of these combined molecular processes is assessed in organic electrochemical transistors, revealing that careful balancing of these phenomena is required to maximize device performance.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Zokaei, Sepideh, 1991, et al.
(författare)
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Toughening of a Soft Polar Polythiophene through Copolymerization with Hard Urethane Segments
- 2021
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Ingår i: Advanced Science. - : Wiley. - 2198-3844. ; 8:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Polar polythiophenes with oligoethylene glycol side chains are exceedingly soft materials. A low glass transition temperature and low degree of crystallinity prevents their use as a bulk material. The synthesis of a copolymer comprising 1) soft polythiophene blocks with tetraethylene glycol side chains, and 2) hard urethane segments is reported. The molecular design is contrary to that of other semiconductor-insulator copolymers, which typically combine a soft nonconjugated spacer with hard conjugated segments. Copolymerization of polar polythiophenes and urethane segments results in a ductile material that can be used as a free-standing solid. The copolymer displays a storage modulus of 25 MPa at room temperature, elongation at break of 95%, and a reduced degree of swelling due to hydrogen bonding. Both chemical doping and electrochemical oxidation reveal that the introduction of urethane segments does not unduly reduce the hole charge-carrier mobility and ability to take up charge. Further, stable operation is observed when the copolymer is used as the active layer of organic electrochemical transistors.
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