Temporally programmed switching of functional states in polyaniline film

Abstract

Polyaniline films are under extensive consideration for applications in sensors, memory devices, displays, biomedicals, etc., owing to their unique optical and electronic functional states that are switchable in response to external stimuli. The application arena of these materials could be enhanced by creating active, adaptive, and autonomous systems with preprogramable spatiotemporal control over the functional states. Here, we present a simple approach to achieve autonomous temporal regulation of polyaniline films’ optical and electrical states by integrating enzyme-catalyzed biochemical reaction. The enzymatic reaction produces a feedback-induced transient pH profile, and correspondingly, the functional states of polyaniline films give rise to a similar switching profile, whose lifetime could be preprogrammed via enzyme concentration. This autonomous, temporally regulated polymer film system represents an advancement to the existing switchable materials that operate at equilibrium.

Professor Sir Anthony K. Cheetham: A half-century of transformative materials science

“…In addition, some contributions cover the exploration of advanced preparation processes. Sonu et al 16 present a simple approach to achieve autonomous temporal regulation of polyaniline films' optical and electrical states by integrating enzyme-catalyzed biochemical reactions. The enzymatic reaction produces a feedbackinduced transient pH profile, and correspondingly, the functional states of polyaniline films give rise to a similar switching profile, whose lifetime could be preprogrammed via enzyme concentration.…”

“…This Special Collection embraces materials chemistry in its entire breadth and depth-in terms of materials classes, characterization techniques, and the close entanglement of experiment and theory. In keeping with the unique scope of materials chemistry pioneered by Professor Cheetham, the materials classes reported in this Special Issue span from MOFs to zeolites and metal oxides, borides (Hu et al 13 and Kalyon et al 14 ), and fluorides, and from DNA mesogens (Gallagher et al 15 ) to polyaniline (Sonu et al 16 ) and molecular organic crystals (Mu et al 17 ).…”