Bioinspired supramolecular fibrillization enables stretchable and biodegradable piezoelectric bioelectronics
Hanwei Wu, Hao Lyu, Hongbo Jiang, Yancheng Wang, Rusen Yang, Syed A. M. Tofail, Hai Xu, Chengchen Guo, Deqing Mei, Ehud Gazit, Kai Tao
Abstract
Bioinspired piezoelectricity is extensively explored for diverse bio-machine interface and biomedical engineering applications. Nevertheless, state-of-the-art bio-piezoelectricity mainly focuses on crystallization. Yet, crystalized structures exhibit several shortcomings, including limited biocompatibility or biodegradability along with intrinsic non-stretchability. Herein, peptides fibrillization is reported to present inherent bio-piezoelectricity. Upon forming double-network framework with silk fibroin, fibrous peptide piezogels of innate biocompatibility and biodegradability are achieved, showing a programmable piezoelectricity. In particular, the bioinspired supramolecular piezogel can linearly respond to external compression and stretching in large force regions, extensively expanding the application potential bio-piezoelectricity. Upon designing a "W"-shaped structural conformation, a peptide fibrous piezogel-based piezoelectric sensor is shown to be used for detection of limb movements and subcutaneous implantation of the bioinspired piezoelectric electronics, realizing in situ and real-time monitoring of stimuli responses. The findings suggest the promising potential of peptide fibrillization-based bio-piezoelectricity for diverse bio-machine interface and biomedical engineering applications.