Zhai Qingfeng, Wang Ren, Lyu Quanxia, Liu Yiyi, Yap Lim Wei, Gong Shu, Cheng Wenlong
Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
New Horizon Research Centre, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
iScience. 2021 Oct 16;24(11):103307. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103307. eCollection 2021 Nov 19.
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., and ). 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 certain threshold value, and then decreases as the strain-induced conductivity decreases. The good reversible "on-off" behaviors for multiple cycles were also demonstrated. The results presented demonstrate a new strategy to control redox reactions simply by tensile strain, indicating the potential applications in future soft smart mechanotransduction devices.
机械门控离子通道在人体中起着重要作用，然而，由于传统电极固有的刚性，设计人工机械控制的离子传输装置具有挑战性。在此，我们报道了一种借助垂直排列的金纳米线（v-AuNWs）作为三维可拉伸电极的机械门控电化学通道。通过用自组装的1-十二烷硫醇单分子层进行表面修饰，v-AuNWs变得疏水，水合氧化还原物种（如 和 ）无法进入。在机械应变下，紧密排列的v-AuNWs拉开/破裂以产生离子通道，从而实现氧化还原反应，导致法拉第电流增加。氧化还原电流随应变水平增加，直至达到某个阈值，然后随着应变诱导的电导率降低而减小。还展示了多个循环中良好的可逆“开-关”行为。所呈现的结果展示了一种仅通过拉伸应变来控制氧化还原反应的新策略，表明其在未来软智能机械转导装置中的潜在应用。
