Interfaces and Charge Transport in Melanin Thin Films and Devices

黑色素薄膜和器件中的界面和电荷传输

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-06422
• 负责人: Santato, Clara
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: École Polytechnique de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=710284
• 关键词: Interfaces; Charge; Transport; Melanin; Thin

The need to limit the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) worldwide, the interest in developing a "ubiquitous sensor network", the requirement for an improved biocompatibility between medical implants and living tissues call for a thorough study of natural materials, environmentally and human friendly, abundant and available at low-cost. Within this context, the pigment melanin is an attractive candidate. Melanin is ubiquitous in flora and fauna. As an example, it can be found in human skin, hair, eyes, inner ear and brain. Eumelanin, the most studied of all classes of melanin, has numerous functions that include photoprotection, metal chelation, antioxidant behavior and free radical scavenging. Eumelanin is also involved in the development of melanoma skin cancer and Parkinson's disease. Apart from its importance in biology and medicine, eumelanin has been investigated by physicists and materials scientists because of its physicochemical properties, e.g. photoconductivity and hydration-dependent conductivity. These properties, together with biocompatibility, biodegradability and extraordinary thermal and photostability, indicate the great potential of eumelanin for technological applications. Despite impressive progress done in the processing of eumelanin - notoriously poorly soluble in all solvents - in film form, major hurdles have to be overcome to advance the understanding of the eumelanin functional properties and to exploit its technological potential. Aspects pertaining to the ill-defined macro and supramolecular structure of the pigment as well as to charge transfer and transport properties are yet to be fully understood. The research program I propose in this Discovery grant aims at advancing the knowledge on electronic and ionic transport in eumelanin films as related to their structure. I will adopt a holistic approach, including chemical, structural, redox, electronic and ionic contributions, which I believe it is the ideal platform to study complex natural materials whose behavior is dramatically influenced by external factors (e.g. composition of the atmosphere or presence of salts). The interdisciplinarity of the research will permit to train versatile highly qualified personnel, real "problem solvers" capable of facing the grand challenges of our modern times. My research will generate guidelines to build extended structure-property relationships in melanin and other classes of natural materials for environmentally benign electronics and bioelectronics, e.g. biocompatible and biodegradable supercapacitors for energy storage, chemo- and biosensors, implantable neurological electrodes with improved biocompatibility and will advance the understanding of the functional properties of eumelanin in biological systems.

需要限制废物的电气和电子设备（WESTERN）在世界范围内，在开发一个“无处不在的传感器网络”的兴趣，医疗植入物和活组织之间的生物相容性的要求，要求一个彻底的研究天然材料，环境和人类友好的，丰富的和可用的低成本。在这种情况下，黑色素是一个有吸引力的候选人。 黑色素在植物群和动物群中普遍存在。例如，它可以在人类皮肤，头发，眼睛，内耳和大脑中找到。真黑素是所有黑色素中研究最多的一类，具有许多功能，包括光保护、金属螯合、抗氧化行为和自由基清除。真黑素还参与黑色素瘤、皮肤癌和帕金森病的发生。除了其在生物学和医学上的重要性外，真黑素还因其物理化学性质而受到物理学家和材料科学家的研究，例如光电导性和水化依赖的电导率。这些特性，加上生物相容性，生物降解性和非凡的热和光稳定性，表明了真黑素在技术应用方面的巨大潜力。 尽管在真黑素的加工方面取得了令人印象深刻的进展-众所周知，在所有溶剂中溶解性差-以薄膜形式，但必须克服主要障碍，以促进对真黑素功能特性的理解并开发其技术潜力。与颜料的不明确的大分子和超分子结构以及电荷转移和传输性质有关的方面尚未完全理解。 我在这个发现基金中提出的研究计划旨在推进与真黑素膜结构相关的电子和离子传输知识。我将采用一种整体的方法，包括化学，结构，氧化还原，电子和离子的贡献，我相信这是研究复杂的自然材料的理想平台，其行为受到外部因素的显着影响（例如大气的组成或盐的存在）。跨学科的研究将允许培养多才多艺的高素质人才，真实的“问题解决者”能够面对我们现代的巨大挑战。 我的研究将产生指导方针，在黑色素和其他类别的天然材料中建立扩展的结构-性质关系，用于环境友好的电子和生物电子学，例如用于能量存储的生物相容性和生物可降解的超级电容器，化学和生物传感器，具有改进的生物相容性的植入式神经电极，并将推进 了解真黑素在生物系统中的功能特性。