Capacitive and Efficient Near-Infrared Stimulation of Neurons Via an Ultrathin AgBiS Nanocrystal Layer

Overview

Journal ACS Appl Mater Interfaces

Publisher American Chemical Society

Specialties Biomedical Engineering
Biotechnology

Date 2024 May 29

PMID 38807565

Authors

Ridvan Balamur

Jae Taek Oh

Onuralp Karatum

Yongjie Wang

Asim Onal

Humeyra Nur Kaleli

Cigdem Pehlivan

Afsun Sahin

Murat Hasanreisoglu

Gerasimos Konstantatos

Sedat Nizamoglu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) exhibit significant potential for photovoltaic bioelectronic interfaces because of their solution processability, tunable energy levels, and inorganic nature, lending them chemical stability. Silver bismuth sulfide (AgBiS) NCs, free from toxic heavy-metal elements (e.g., Cd, Hg, and Pb), particularly offer an exceptional absorption coefficient exceeding 10 cm in the near-infrared (NIR), surpassing many of their inorganic counterparts. Here, we integrated an ultrathin (24 nm) AgBiS NC layer into a water-stable photovoltaic bioelectronic device architecture that showed a high capacitive photocurrent of 2.3 mA·cm in artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) and ionic charges over 10 μC·cm at a low NIR intensity of 0.5 mW·mm. The device without encapsulation showed a halftime of 12.5 years under passive accelerated aging test and did not show any toxicity on neurons. Furthermore, patch-clamp electrophysiology on primary hippocampal neurons under whole-cell configuration revealed that the device elicited neuron firing at intensity levels more than an order of magnitude below the established ocular safety limits. These findings point to the potential of AgBiS NCs for photovoltaic retinal prostheses.

Citing Articles

Emergence of Near-Infrared Photoluminescence via ZnS Shell Growth on the AgBiS Nanocrystals.

Onal A, Kaya T, Metin O, Nizamoglu S Chem Mater. 2025; 37(1):255-265.

PMID: 39830218 PMC: 11736682. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c02406.

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