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    Shape-Controlled Flexible Microelectronics Facilitated by Integrated Sensors and Conductive Polymer Actuators
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2021) Rivkin, Boris; Becker, Christian; Akbar, Farzin; Ravishankar, Rachappa; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy; Naumann, Ronald; Mirhajivarzaneh, Aaleh; Medina-Sánchez, Mariana; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    The next generation of biomedical tools requires reshapeable electronics to closely interface with biological tissues. This will offer unique mechanical properties and the ability to conform to irregular geometries while being robust and lightweight. Such devices can be achieved with soft materials and thin-film structures that are able to reshape on demand. However, reshaping at the submillimeter scale remains a challenging task. Herein, shape-controlled microscale devices are demonstrated that integrate electronic sensors and electroactive polymer actuators. The fast and biocompatible actuators are capable of actively reshaping the device into flat or curved geometries. The curvature and position of the devices are monitored with strain or magnetic sensors. The sensor signals are used in a closed feedback loop to control the actuators. The devices are wafer-scale microfabricated resulting in multiple functional units capable of grasping, holding, and releasing biological tissues, as demonstrated with a neuronal bundle.
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    Imperceptible Supercapacitors with High Area-Specific Capacitance
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Ge, Jin; Zhu, Minshen; Eisner, Eric; Yin, Yin; Dong, Haiyun; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Zhu, Feng; Ma, Libo; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Imperceptible electronics will make next-generation healthcare and biomedical systems thinner, lighter, and more flexible. While other components are thoroughly investigated, imperceptible energy storage devices lag behind because the decrease of thickness impairs the area-specific energy density. Imperceptible supercapacitors with high area-specific capacitance based on reduced graphene oxide/polyaniline (RGO/PANI) composite electrodes and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/H2SO4 gel electrolyte are reported. Two strategies to realize a supercapacitor with a total device thickness of 5 µm—including substrate, electrode, and electrolyte—and an area-specific capacitance of 36 mF cm−2 simultaneously are implemented. First, the void volume of the RGO/PANI electrodes through mechanical compression is reduced, which decreases the thickness by 83% while retaining 89% of the capacitance. Second, the PVA-to-H2SO4 mass ratio is decreased to 1:4.5, which improves the ion conductivity by 5000% compared to the commonly used PVA/H2SO4 gel. Both advantages enable a 2 µm-thick gel electrolyte for planar interdigital supercapacitors. The impressive electromechanical stability of the imperceptible supercapacitors by wrinkling the substrate to produce folds with radii of 6 µm or less is demonstrated. The supercapacitors will be meaningful energy storage modules for future self-powered imperceptible electronics.
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    Impedimetric Microfluidic Sensor-in-a-Tube for Label-Free Immune Cell Analysis
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Egunov, Aleksandr I.; Dou, Zehua; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Hebenstreit, Franziska; Kretschmann, Nicole; Akgün, Katja; Ziemssen, Tjalf; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Medina-Sánchez, Mariana; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Analytical platforms based on impedance spectroscopy are promising for non-invasive and label-free analysis of single cells as well as of their extracellular matrix, being essential to understand cell function in the presence of certain diseases. Here, an innovative rolled-up impedimetric microfulidic sensor, called sensor-in-a-tube, is introduced for the simultaneous analysis of single human monocytes CD14+ and their extracellular medium upon liposaccharides (LPS)-mediated activation. In particular, rolled-up platinum microelectrodes are integrated within for the static and dynamic (in-flow) detection of cells and their surrounding medium (containing expressed cytokines) over an excitation frequency range from 102 to 5 × 106 Hz. The correspondence between cell activation stages and the electrical properties of the cell surrounding medium have been detected by electrical impedance spectroscopy in dynamic mode without employing electrode surface functionalization or labeling. The designed sensor-in-a-tube platform is shown as a sensitive and reliable tool for precise single cell analysis toward immune-deficient diseases diagnosis.