Mechanically-gated electrochemical ionic channels with chemically modified vertically aligned gold nanowires.

ABSTRACT: Mechanically-gated ion channels play an important role in the human body, whereas it is challenging to design artificial mechanically-controlled ionic transport devices as the intrinsically rigidity of traditional electrodes. Here, we report on a mechanically-gated electrochemical channel by virtue of vertically aligned gold nanowires (v-AuNWs) as 3D stretchable electrodes. By surface modification with a self-assembled 1-Dodecanethiol monolayer, the v-AuNWs become hydrophobic and inaccessible to hydrated redox species (e.g., Fe(CN)63-/4- and Ru(bpy)32+ ). Under mechanical strains, the closely-packed v-AuNWs unzip/crack to generate ionic channels to enable redox reactions, giving rise to increases in Faradaic currents. The redox current increases with the strain level until it reaches a cer

SUBMITTER: Zhai Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8571725 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature