| First Author | Huang S | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 3525 |
| PubMed ID | 38664445 | Mgi Jnum | J:348976 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7624906 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-024-47988-w |
| Citation | Huang S, et al. (2024) Control of polymers' amorphous-crystalline transition enables miniaturization and multifunctional integration for hydrogel bioelectronics. Nat Commun 15(1):3525 |
| abstractText | Soft bioelectronic devices exhibit motion-adaptive properties for neural interfaces to investigate complex neural circuits. Here, we develop a fabrication approach through the control of metamorphic polymers' amorphous-crystalline transition to miniaturize and integrate multiple components into hydrogel bioelectronics. We attain an about 80% diameter reduction in chemically cross-linked polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel fibers in a fully hydrated state. This strategy allows regulation of hydrogel properties, including refractive index (1.37-1.40 at 480 nm), light transmission (>96%), stretchability (139-169%), bending stiffness (4.6 +/- 1.4 N/m), and elastic modulus (2.8-9.3 MPa). To exploit the applications, we apply step-index hydrogel optical probes in the mouse ventral tegmental area, coupled with fiber photometry recordings and social behavioral assays. Additionally, we fabricate carbon nanotubes-PVA hydrogel microelectrodes by incorporating conductive nanomaterials in hydrogel for spontaneous neural activities recording. We enable simultaneous optogenetic stimulation and electrophysiological recordings of light-triggered neural activities in Channelrhodopsin-2 transgenic mice. |
