Myelin Sheath-Inspired Fluorocarbon Hydrophobic Bridges for Stable n-Type Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductors.
4 affiliations
- 1Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry for Natural Resource, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Science and Technology, Yunnan University, Kunming650091, China.
- 2School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia30332, United States.
- 3Southwest United Graduate School, Kunming650092, China.
- 4Department of Materials, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong999077, China.
Abstract
Operationally stable n-type organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) remain a critical bottleneck for organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) for application in bioelectronic and neuromorphic devices. However, several state-of-the-art n-type OMIECs suffer from performance decay and poor stability when operated in aqueous media. Inspired by myelin sheaths, we challenge the conventional "π-backbone + hydrophilic side-chain" design and propose a molecular architecture with fluorocarbon hydrophobic bridges to spatially segregate, at the molecular level, ionic and electronic pathways. By tuning the fluorocarbon bridge chain length in fluorocarbon-ethylene glycol chain substituents [-CH2(CF2)nCH2(OCH2CH2)5OMe = 2nFG; n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6] of a DPP-CNTVT polymer series (2nFG-P), we balance electron transport, ion exchange, redox chemistry efficiency, and water incorporation. Extensive in situ spectroelectrochemistry, EIS, Raman, EQCM-D, AFM, and GIWAXS characterization reveals that tuning the length of the hydrophobic bridge enables good electron transport, suppresses excessive water incorporation, and enhances stability. Thus, the polymer with a mid-length bridge, 8FG-P (n = 4), achieves the greatest electron transport (μC* ∼ 157 F cm-1 V-1 s-1, μ ∼ 1.22 cm2 V-1 s-1), fastest response (τon/τoff = 2.6/1.5 ms), and retains >90% of the initial performance after 10,000 s of operation in water, a result independent of the polymer molecular weight. This strategy potentially expands OMIECs design principles and offers useful insights toward stable n-type OECT semiconductors.
Related
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BibTeX
@article{feng2026myelin,
title = {{Myelin Sheath-Inspired Fluorocarbon Hydrophobic Bridges for Stable n-Type Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductors.}},
author = {Wang Feng and Shaodan Cai and Chao Deng and Bei Zhang and Mengge Wu and Jianhua Chen and Antonio Facchetti},
journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1021/jacs.6c12196},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42912344},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Myelin Sheath-Inspired Fluorocarbon Hydrophobic Bridges for Stable n-Type Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductors.
AU - Wang Feng
AU - Shaodan Cai
AU - Chao Deng
AU - Bei Zhang
AU - Mengge Wu
AU - Jianhua Chen
AU - Antonio Facchetti
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
DO - 10.1021/jacs.6c12196
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42912344
AB - Operationally stable n-type organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) remain a critical bottleneck for organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) for application in bioelectronic and neuromorphic devices. However, several state-of-the-art n-type OMIECs suffer from performance decay and poor stability when operated in aqueous media. Inspired by myelin sheaths, we challenge the conventional "π-backbone + hydrophilic side-chain" design and propose a molecular architecture with fluorocarbon hydrophobic bridges to spatially segregate, at the molecular level, ionic and electronic pathways. By tuning the fluorocarbon bridge chain length in fluorocarbon-ethylene glycol chain substituents [-CH2(CF2)nCH2(OCH2CH2)5OMe = 2nFG; n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6] of a DPP-CNTVT polymer series (2nFG-P), we balance electron transport, ion exchange, redox chemistry efficiency, and water incorporation. Extensive in situ spectroelectrochemistry, EIS, Raman, EQCM-D, AFM, and GIWAXS characterization reveals that tuning the length of the hydrophobic bridge enables good electron transport, suppresses excessive water incorporation, and enhances stability. Thus, the polymer with a mid-length bridge, 8FG-P (n = 4), achieves the greatest electron transport (μC* ∼ 157 F cm-1 V-1 s-1, μ ∼ 1.22 cm2 V-1 s-1), fastest response (τon/τoff = 2.6/1.5 ms), and retains >90% of the initial performance after 10,000 s of operation in water, a result independent of the polymer molecular weight. This strategy potentially expands OMIECs design principles and offers useful insights toward stable n-type OECT semiconductors.
SN - 0002-7863
SN - 1520-5126
ER -