[2024] Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Wound Healing

Background: Organic electrochemical transistors (OECT)^[1] are electronic devices that use conducting polymers – for example PEDOT:PSS – in direct contact with cells. One of the key advantages of OECTs is their ability to operate in biological environment with high sensitivity at low voltages - typically below 0.5 V. This key advantage stems from the ability of conducting polymers to support ionic conduction, allowing for the uninterrupted exchange of ions between the biological system and electronic devices - ions are injected into the polymer film from the electrolyte solution upon a gate voltage.^[2] OECT technology has already proven beneficial for several bioelectronic applications, including biosensing (e.g. detection of glucose, ions and DNA),^[3] neural recordings/stimulation^[4] as well as in vitro cell monitoring, among others. For each of these applications the OECT operation can be fine-tuned by changing the conducting polymer thickness^[5] as well as the channel/gate dimensions and architecture of the transistor.

Aim: development and characterization of OECT arrays based on PEDOT:PSS to monitoring the growth of human stem cells and to guide them with electricity to speed up the healing of wounds.

Literature:

[1]        J. Rivnay et al., Nature Review Materials 2018, 3, 17086.

[2]        A. Savva et al. , Advanced Functional Materials 2020, 30, DOI 10.1002/adfm.201907657.

[3]        A. M. Pappa et al., Science Advances 2018, 4,

[4]        D. Khodagholy et al., Nature Communications 2013, 4, 1575.

[5]        J. Rivnay et al., Science  Advances 2015, 1, e1400251.

Assignment

1^st part:  Literature review of organic electrochemical transistors based on PEDOT:PSS.

2^nd part: Design, fabrication and characterization of PEDOT:PSS-based organic electrochemical transistors with different channel and gate dimensions.

3^rd part: Monitor stem cell proliferation and wound healing ability

Requirements

MSc students from Microelectronics, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Electrical Engineering are welcomed to apply. Interested students should contact Dr. Achilleas Savva (a.savva@tudelft.nl), by including their CV, the list of courses attended, and a motivation letter.

Contact

Last modified: 2024-03-06