Transient electronic device with silk fibroin film as flexible substrate and preparation method thereof
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of transient electronic devices, in particular to a transient electronic device taking a silk fibroin film as a flexible substrate and a preparation method thereof.
Background
The transient device can stably work within a set time after being prepared, and the device partially or completely disappears after being triggered under a specific condition, so that irreversible structural and functional damage is realized. By means of the characteristic that the transient device is destroyed and disappears, the transient device has important application value in the fields of taking-out-free implantable devices, degradable environment-friendly devices and information safety for preventing sensitive information from being leaked.
Compared with the traditional electronic device, the flexible transient electronic device can adapt to the uneven working surface, has the transient degradation characteristic and is beneficial to reducing the pollution of electronic wastes. In addition, when the flexible transient device is used as an implantable medical device, the flexible transient device can be in contact with human soft tissues without the risk of stress injury and secondary operation, so that the flexible transient device becomes a research hotspot in the fields of medical health, photoelectric energy conversion, information safety and the like.
To date, flexible electronic devices are prepared by transfer printing, 3D printing, physical and chemical deposition of inorganic conductor or semiconductor materials that can form ordered patterns or arrays on flexible substrates. In the biomedical field, degradable materials with good biocompatibility, such as polylactic acid, polycaprolactone, polylactic acid-glycolic acid copolymer, polysaccharide, protein and the like, have been developed at present as substrates for constructing flexible transient devices. But the degradation speed is very slow, and the degradation conditions of partial materials are too harsh, so that the practical application cannot be met. In addition, the light transmittance and the mechanical property of the film prepared by the material are difficult to simultaneously meet the structure and performance requirements of the flexible transient device.
Silk fibroin is a natural fiber protein, has good biocompatibility and biodegradability, and is widely applied to the field of biomedicine, such as surgical sutures, bone nails and gel materials. Compared with other biodegradable materials, the silk fibroin film has excellent mechanical property, optical property and electrical insulation property, and has wide application prospect of flexible electronic devices. In order to enable the insulating silk fibroin film to have conductive performance, a carbon-based material and metal nanoparticles are used as conductors, a patterning path is formed on the silk fibroin film through an etching and depositing method, or the whole electrode array is integrated on the silk fibroin film substrate through a PDMS stamp technology. In addition, with the development of 3D printing technology, people use liquid metal, carbon nanomaterials, and metal nanoparticles as printable conductive ink to directly write conductive patterns on the silk fibroin substrate. The research results of various processing techniques play an important role in promoting the development of flexible transient electronics. However, the preparation of flexible transient electrons based on silk fibroin membranes still has some challenges, namely how to make silk fibroin membrane-based electronic devices stable under normal environment, but can be automatically decomposed under given trigger conditions such as temperature, light, enzyme and solvent, and the like, which is of great significance for reducing electronic waste and promoting the development of information security and wearable equipment.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a transient electronic device taking a silk fibroin film as a flexible substrate and a preparation method thereof.
To this end, the invention provides a transient electronic device with a silk fibroin film as a flexible substrate, which comprises a flexible substrate and a conductive circuit;
the flexible substrate comprises a water-soluble regenerated silk fibroin film;
the conductive circuit includes silver nanowires that are transferred to the flexible substrate by casting a regenerated silk fibroin solution onto a silver nanowire pattern.
Further, the thickness of the regenerated silk fibroin membrane is 50-260 μm, preferably 90-260 μm, more preferably 90-210 μm, such as 90 μm, 100 μm, 130 μm, 160 μm, 180 μm, 210 μm.
Further, the regenerated silk fibroin is selected from one or more of regenerated mulberry silk fibroin, regenerated tussah silk fibroin, regenerated castor silk fibroin and regenerated tussah silk fibroin.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a method for preparing a transient electronic device using a silk fibroin film as a flexible substrate is provided, which comprises the following steps:
s1, casting the silver nanowire dispersion liquid on a patterned template, and forming a silver nanowire pattern on the concave part of the patterned template after the solvent is completely evaporated;
and S2, casting the regenerated silk fibroin solution on a patterned template with a silver nanowire pattern, and drying to obtain the regenerated silk fibroin film, thus obtaining the flexible transient electronic device.
Further, in step S1, the silver nanowire dispersion liquid has a mass fraction of silver nanowires of 5 to 10%, preferably 5%.
Further, in step S2, the concentration of the regenerated silk fibroin solution is 2-8% (w/v), preferably 4-6%.
Further, in step S2, the regenerated silk fibroin film has a thickness of 50 to 260 μm, preferably 90 to 260 μm, more preferably 90 to 210 μm, such as 90 μm, 100 μm, 130 μm, 160 μm, 180 μm, 210 μm.
Further, the regenerated silk fibroin is selected from one or more of regenerated mulberry silk fibroin, tussah silk fibroin, castor silk fibroin, and tussah silk fibroin.
Further, in step S1, the method for preparing the silver nanowire dispersion includes: respectively preparing a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) solution and a metal chloride solution by using Ethylene Glycol (EG) as a solvent; dissolving silver nitrate in a PVP solution, mixing with a metal chloride solution, uniformly stirring, reacting at 120-150 ℃ for 4-6 h, and washing and concentrating to obtain silver nanowires; and dispersing the silver nanowires in ethanol to obtain the silver nanowire dispersion liquid.
Further, the metal chloride is sodium chloride, potassium chloride, copper chloride or ferric chloride.
Further, after washing and concentrating, the method also comprises the following steps: the residue was removed with acetone and ethanol.
Further, in step S2, the method for preparing the regenerated silk fibroin solution includes: pretreating silk with an alkali solution to obtain degummed silk fibers; dissolving the degummed silk fiber in an inorganic salt/alcohol/water ternary solvent system for dialysis; thus obtaining the regenerated silk fibroin solution.
Further, after the dialysis, the method also comprises the following steps: the dialyzed solution was centrifuged to remove impurities.
Further, the ternary solvent system of inorganic salt/alcohol/water is selected from the following ternary solvent systems: calcium chloride/ethanol/water, calcium chloride/methanol/water, calcium nitrate/methanol/water or calcium nitrate/ethanol/water; calcium chloride/ethanol/water is preferred. Preferably, the molar ratio of inorganic salt/alcohol/water is 1:2: 8.
In a specific embodiment, the alkali solution is a sodium carbonate solution; the preparation method of the regenerated silk fibroin solution comprises the following steps: pretreating silk with a sodium carbonate solution, and chopping the silk to obtain degumming silk fibers; dissolving the degummed silk fiber in a ternary solvent system of calcium chloride/ethanol/water (molar ratio is 1:2:8), dissolving at 70-80 ℃ for 3-5 h, and dialyzing for 3-3.5 d for desalination by using a dialysis bag with molecular cut-off of MWCO 3500; and centrifuging the desalted solution to obtain the regenerated silk fibroin solution.
The silk is composed of silk fibroin and sericin, wherein the silk fibroin accounts for about 75-83% of the silk. The natural silk fibroin has an antiparallel beta-folded structure, is stable in structure under the action of intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonds and van der Waals force, and is insoluble in water. The silk fibroin is dissolved by an inorganic salt system and can be converted into soluble regenerated silk fibroin. Silk fibroin fibers are typically solubilized using a ternary solvent of calcium chloride, ethanol, and water, in which calcium ions can form stable complexes with hydroxyl groups on the serine and tyrosine side chains of silk fibroin, resulting in the weakening of hydrogen bonds and van der waals forces between protein chains; at the same time, ethanol may help the penetration of ions into the protein chain.
In a third aspect of the invention, the application of the transient electronic device or the preparation method in the fields of wearable equipment, biomedical sensors, implantable devices, smart clothing and medical tissue engineering is provided.
Compared with the prior art, the technical scheme of the invention has the following advantages:
(1) the transient electronic device is prepared by physically depositing silver nanowires on a patterned template and casting a regenerated silk fibroin solution on the same template, and the preparation method is simple. So that the silver nanowires are not only present on the surface of the silk film but also can be uniformly distributed over the entire pattern area of the silk film.
(2) The transient electronic device provided by the invention has high light transmittance, excellent mechanical property and excellent insulating property, and can be dissolved in water within one minute after a task is completed.
(3) The preparation method provided by the invention adopts a two-time solution casting method, and the silver nanoparticle-silk fibroin composite solution is usually prepared firstly and then formed into a film in the prior art; the method adopts a two-time solution casting method, has simple and feasible steps, low cost and good application prospect, and is expected to promote the development and application of transient electronics in the fields of information security and wearable equipment.
Drawings
Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. In the drawings:
fig. 1 is a scanning electron microscope image of the upper surface of a regenerated silk fibroin film having a silver nanopattern;
fig. 2 is a scanning electron microscope image of the upper surface of a regenerated silk fibroin film having a silver nanopattern;
fig. 3 is a scanning electron micrograph of a cross-section of a regenerated silk fibroin film having a silver nanopattern;
FIG. 4 is an AFM image of the surface morphology of a regenerated silk fibroin film;
fig. 5 is a graph of the transmittance of regenerated silk fibroin films of different thicknesses;
fig. 6 is a stress-strain curve of regenerated silk fibroin films of different thicknesses;
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an interdigital circuit; 1-finger, 2-receiving electrode, 3-driving electrode;
FIG. 8 is a graph of capacitance change of an interdigital capacitive sensor caused by a finger touch;
Detailed Description
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.
The reagents and instruments used in the examples of the present invention are commercially available from conventional sources, some of which are as follows:
silk was purchased from SIMATECH;
polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP, Mw 360000) was purchased from Sigma Aldrich.
Example 1 preparation of regenerated Silk fibroin
Soaking silk in 0.02M Na2CO3Cutting the fiber into pieces after pretreatment to obtain the degummed silk fiber; dissolving the degummed silk fiber in a ternary solvent system of calcium chloride/ethanol/water (molar ratio is 1:2:8), dissolving at 75 ℃ for 4h, and dialyzing for 3d for desalination by using a dialysis bag with molecular cut-off of MWCO 3500; centrifuging the desalted silk fibroin solution twice at 9000rpm for 20min each time, and removing clustersPolymers and other impurities; thus, a regenerated silk fibroin solution was prepared, and the solution was dried in a hood to 4% (w/v) for use.
Example 2 preparation of silver nanowires
The method for synthesizing the silver nanowires by adopting the one-pot method comprises the following steps:
0.2g PVP was dissolved in 25mL EG at room temperature, then 0.25g silver nitrate was added to the PVP solution, and care was taken to keep out of the light. Subsequently, 3.5g FeCl3The salt solution (0.6mM, solvent EG) was mixed with clear PVP solution and stirred for 1 min. The mixture was heated at 130 ℃ for 5h, and after washing and concentration, the residue was removed with acetone and ethanol to obtain silver nanowires. Finally, the silver nanowires were dispersed in ethanol to prepare a silver nanowire dispersion (mass fraction of 5%).
EXAMPLE 3 preparation of interdigital capacitive sensors
The patterned template was designed and prepared in advance such that the recessed portions of the template were interdigitated such that the width and spacing of the conductive strips was 2 mm. The interdigitated conductive circuit may provide coupling across a gap between the drive electrode and the receive electrode.
The silver nanowire dispersion prepared in example 2 was cast on the pre-designed patterned template to prepare a functional conductive circuit on a polypropylene substrate; and after the ethanol solution is completely evaporated, casting the regenerated silk fibroin solution prepared in the embodiment 1 on the same patterned template, transferring the silver nanoparticle circuit to a regenerated silk fibroin film, drying, and forming a conductive pattern on the regenerated silk fibroin film to obtain the interdigital capacitive sensor.
Scanning electron microscope imaging is carried out on the prepared interdigital capacitive sensor, and the imaging result is shown in fig. 1-3, wherein fig. 1 is the upper surface of the regenerated silk fibroin film with the silver nano patterns, fig. 2 is the lower surface of the regenerated silk fibroin film with the silver nano patterns, and fig. 3 is the cross section of the regenerated silk fibroin film with the silver nano patterns. As can be seen from fig. 1 to 3, the silver nanowires have been successfully encapsulated in the regenerated silk fibroin film, and are not only distributed on the upper surface of the regenerated silk fibroin film, but also uniformly distributed in the entire pattern region of the silk film, so that the silver nanowires are redistributed in the regenerated silk fibroin solution, and form a conductive pattern on the regenerated silk fibroin film after drying. The distribution mode of the silver nanowires in the regenerated silk fibroin film is beneficial to the stability of a circuit and can prevent the film from being bent and scratched.
Experimental example 1
In this example, the roughness of the surface of the regenerated silk fibroin film prepared by casting the regenerated silk fibroin solution prepared in example 1 on a template was analyzed by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) experiments, and the experimental results are shown in fig. 4, the surface of the regenerated silk fibroin film was smooth and free of cracks or wrinkles, and it was estimated that 15 × 15 μm was 152The transmittance over the area is about Rq 17.6nm (root mean square). This indicates that the silk film prepared by casting the regenerated silk fibroin solution onto the polypropylene substrate is flat and can further incorporate conductive silver nanowires.
Experimental example 2
In the experimental example, the transmittance and the mechanical strength corresponding to different thicknesses of the regenerated silk fibroin film are detected when the capacitive sensor is prepared.
As shown in fig. 5, the regenerated silk fibroin films in the visible and near infrared light ranges were characterized by an ultraviolet spectrometer, and the sensors all had excellent transmittance of about 100% when regenerated silk fibroin films of different film thicknesses (90, 130, and 210 μm) were used.
The tensile stress and strain performance of regenerated silk fibroin films of different thicknesses were tested with an instron5567 instrument. The sample to be tested is cut into 30mm (length) multiplied by 10mm (width), the thickness is measured by a micrometer, and the mechanical property of the film is characterized by a high-temperature mechanical property tester (instron 5567). During the test, the distance between the pinch points and the test speed were set to 10mm and 2mm/min, respectively. The tensile strength and elongation at break formula is as follows:
tensile strength (MPa) ═ breaking force (N)/(film thickness (mm) × film width (mm));
elongation at break (%) × 100% (film elongation (mm)/film length (mm)).
The detection result is shown in fig. 6, the tensile stress and tensile strain of the silk film are significantly improved along with the reduction of the thickness of the silk film, which shows that the flexibility of the silk film can be adjusted through the thickness to meet the preparation requirements of various flexible transient electronic devices. When the thickness of the film is reduced to 90 mu m, the tensile strength and the elongation at break of the film reach 82.47mpa and 11.2 percent respectively. The flexibility of the silk film was significantly improved compared to the 330 μm sample. Thus, by selecting an appropriate thickness, the effect of silk film brittleness can be reduced, ensuring sufficient strength to support circuit integrity.
Experimental example 3
The interdigital patterned template designed according to embodiment 3 has a sensing principle as shown in fig. 7, the driving electrode transmits a low-voltage high-frequency signal to the receiving electrode to form a stable current, when a finger contacts a capacitor, the finger and the capacitor form an equivalent capacitance due to the grounding of a human body, and the high-frequency signal can be input to the ground through the equivalent capacitance, so that the intensity of the signal recorded by the receiving electrode is reduced, and the interdigital patterned template can be used as a signal sensor to control an electric appliance.
In this experimental example, the interdigital capacitive sensor prepared in example 3 was used to control the brightness of an LED bulb. In order to detect the change of capacitance, an open source code-based software and hardware platform Arduino UNO R3 is used, which can call source code and programming control through an arduinide interface. When a voltage of 3V is applied, the capacitance change detection result is shown in figure 8, and when a finger touches the interdigital capacitance sensor, the capacitance of the interdigital capacitance sensor is reduced from 12pF to 8pF, so that the switch of the LED bulb is effectively controlled.
After the interdigital capacitive sensor is immersed in deionized water, the interdigital capacitive sensor can be completely decomposed within 1min, so that the LED lamp is turned off.
The above description is only for the preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present invention are included in the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the appended claims.