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A high-frequency artificial nerve based on homogeneously integrated organic electrochemical transistors

Nature Electronics volume 8, pages 254–266 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Artificial nerves that are capable of sensing, processing and memory functions at bio-realistic frequencies are of potential use in nerve repair and brain–machine interfaces. n-type organic electrochemical transistors are a possible building block for artificial nerves, as their positive-potential-triggered potentiation behaviour can mimic that of biological cells. However, the devices are limited by weak ionic and electronic transport and storage properties, which leads to poor volatile and non-volatile performance and, in particular, a slow response. We describe a high-frequency artificial nerve based on homogeneously integrated organic electrochemical transistors. We fabricate a vertical n-type organic electrochemical transistor with a gradient-intermixed bicontinuous structure that simultaneously enhances the ionic and electronic transport and the ion storage. The transistor exhibits a volatile response of 27 μs, a 100-kHz non-volatile memory frequency and a long state-retention time. Our integrated artificial nerve, which contains vertical n-type and p-type organic electrochemical transistors, offers sensing, processing and memory functions in the high-frequency domain. We also show that the artificial nerve can be integrated into animal models with compromised neural functions and that it can mimic basic conditioned reflex behaviour.

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Fig. 1: Artificial nerve based on n-type sv-OECTs.
Fig. 2: Working principles of sv-OECTs.
Fig. 3: Customized artificial nerve circuit based on sv-OECTs.
Fig. 4: Flexible CMANs based on sv-OECTs.
Fig. 5: CMAN for biological nerve replacement.

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Data availability

Source data has been deposited in the Science Data Bank with the following link: https://www.scidb.cn/s/IVFzEr.

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Acknowledgements

W.M. gratefully acknowledges funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, grant W2411049), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grants. 2024YFA1208204, 2022YFE0132400), the Key Scientific and Technological Innovation Team Project of Shaanxi Province (grant 2020TD-002) and 111 project 2.0 (grant BP2018008). S.W. gratefully acknowledges funding from the NSFC (grant 523B2033) and the China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (grant BX20240282). B.W. gratefully acknowledges funding from the NSFC (grant 52303246) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant. 2022TQ0250). C.Z. gratefully acknowledges funding from the NSFC (grant 22109125). P.M.B. gratefully acknowledges support from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy (grant EXC 2089/1–390776260, e-conversion) and TUM solar in the context of the Bavarian Collaborative Research Project Solar Technologies Go Hybrid. G.P. gratefully acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council. G.B. gratefully acknowledges support from the Natural Science Basic Research Plan of Shaanxi Province, China (grant 2021JM-271). The GIWAXS measurements were performed at beamline P03, PETRA III, DESY. We thank A. Chumakov, H. Zhong and L. P. Spanier for their help during the beamtime. We also thank X. Guo from the Southern University of Science and Technology for help with material synthesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Shijie Wang, Xinmei Cai, Bingjun Wang, Chao Zhao, Sen Zhang, Kexin Huang, Bomin Xie, Yong Han & Wei Ma

  2. The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Yichang Wang, Beichen Zhang & Gang Bao

  3. TUM School of Natural Science, Department of Physics, Chair for Functional Materials, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany

    Guangjiu Pan, Constantin Harder, Yusuf Bulut & Peter Müller-Buschbaum

  4. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, Germany

    Constantin Harder, Yusuf Bulut & Stephan V. Roth

  5. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an, China

    Yuxin Kong & Yuxiang Li

  6. Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany

    Peter Müller-Buschbaum

  7. Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Stephan V. Roth

  8. The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Lin Yang

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Contributions

S.W. and W.M. were responsible for the conceptualization of this work. S.W., G.P., S.Z., K.H., B.X., Y.B. and C.H. collected and analysed the data. Y.K. and Y.L. performed the material synthesis. X.C. undertook the cell experiments. S.W., Y.W., B.Z. and L.Y. undertook the animal experiments. P.M.B., S.V.R., Y.L., G.B., Y.H. and W.M. supervised the work. S.W. wrote the original draft of the manuscript. S.W., B.W., C.Z., G.P., P.M.B., Y.H. and W.M. reviewed and edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bingjun Wang, Chao Zhao or Wei Ma.

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Nature Electronics thanks Achilleas Savva, Sihong Wang and Tao Zhou for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–5 and Figs 1–39.

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Supplementary Video 1

Conditioned reflex behaviour of the CMAN-implanted mouse.

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Wang, S., Wang, Y., Cai, X. et al. A high-frequency artificial nerve based on homogeneously integrated organic electrochemical transistors. Nat Electron 8, 254–266 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01357-7

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