iPILs4Bionics · Innovative Biodegradable Poly(ionic liquid)s for Bioelectronics
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-09-01 → 2020-09-02
- EU contribution
- €170,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Innovative Biodegradable Poly(ionic liquid)s for Bioelectronics
Bioelectronic systems have experienced tremendous growth, ensuing a variety of bioelectronic devices that can offer improved healthcare conditions, such as biosensors, pacemakers, neural interfaces, ion-pumps, etc. Nevertheless, this field is limited by the materials that transduce signals across the electronic/biology interface. For instance, in electrodes for electrophysiology, the coatings are required to be so be, highly conductive, biocompatible and able to decrease electrode/skin interface impedance, so that they can be suitable for long-term recordings. The existing conductive materials struggle to meet these demands; hence, it is still a challenge to fabricate such systems. Poly(ionic liquid)s as electrolytes have recently attracted much attention in the development of iongels. These soft ionic materials combine the excellent ionic conductivity and low volatile ILs with the mechanical properties of PILs. However, most of the developed PILs were based in non-biodegradable polymeric backbones, which limit the application of the materials in vivo. Thus, it is of vital importance to add new properties to iongels, like biodegradability and biocompatibility, before their application in the healthcare sector. This project addresses these issues through the development of innovative biodegradable poly(ionic liquid)s for bioelectronic devices. For this purpose, the chemistry of biodegradable poly(ionic liquid)s or other functional polymers is combined in an original way with readily biodegradable ionic liquids in order to obtain different materials for bioelectronics. It is easy to foresee that the ionic liquid-based materials here developed will represent a clear breakthrough in the design of advanced soft ionic electrolytes for biomedical applications. Consequently, this project is potentially high social impact and it will lead to the development of new materials to improve the performance of bioelectronic devices interfaced with human body, ensuring improved quality of human’s life. Higher-quality data will enable the investigation of better solutions for treating pathologies such as epilepsy and cancer, as well as to monitor and detect important diseases related to the heart (i.e. arrhythmias) and muscular problems. Overall, the focus of this project is to synthesize new biodegradable poly(ionic liquid)s, opening the door to the creation of a new generation of innovative soft ionic materials, and determine their potential to improve the performance of bioelectronics devices.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Poly(ionic liquid)s or PILs are expanding classical property profiles of polymers and stirring great interest in the development of diverse areas, as green chemistry, energy, biotechnology, materials or membrane science. One of the common concerns of PILs consist of its biodegradability due their bioaccumulation and negative effects to the environment and the human body. The main goal of this project is to develop the first generation of biodegradable PILs. The most successful biodegradable polymeric backbones such as polycarbonates or polyesters will be combined with readily biodegradable cholinium-based ionic liquids. The polymers will be synthesized by controlled ring-opening polymerization using recently developed organocatalysis tools. The most promising biodegradable PILs will be investigated as ion conductive soft membranes in bioelectronic devices.This MSCA Fellowship will open the best career possibilities for the Experienced Researcher (ER), and excellent young female scientist. After a successful PhD and 2 years Post-Doc in ionic liquid-based materials and gas separation membranes at ITQB-Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), she decided to move to a different environment, where she can exploit all her materials science expertise. The Innovative Polymers Group directed by Prof. David Mecerreyes at POLYMAT-University of the Basque Country (Spain) is one of the top-class groups in the emerging area of PILs. This multidisciplinary project will broaden the scientific knowledge of the ER and help her to grow and expand her network in order to reach a future group leader position in the materials science field.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA · LeioaCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union