New Wireless Electronics Could Heal Wounds and Then Dissolve
Nestled inside a wound, a remote-controlled device perks up and begins releasing bacteria-killing heat, a form of thermal therapy that can fell even the most drug-resistant microbes. After it does its job, the electronic heater dissolves, and its biocompatible ingredients become part of the person it has helped to heal.
Though not quite a reality yet, this scenario isn’t too far off. In addition to dissolvable electronics, scientists have now built a biodegradable remote-controlled, power-harvesting circuit, described May 17 in Advanced Materials, and are already testing absorbable thermal electronics in rodents.
This biocompatible remote-controlled circuit is an important step toward building dissolvable electronics that could function as “electroceuticals,” devices that perform therapeutic roles and then disappear. Such roles could include stimulating nerve and bone growth, helping heal wounds, delivering drugs, or acting as antibiotics.
“In each case, the device needs to function only for a timeframe set by a healing process. As such, the ideal scenario is for the device to simply disappear afterward,” said John Rogers, a mechanical engineer at the University of Illinois. Last year, Rogers described the development of a water-soluble, silicon-based circuit that completely dissolves in water; earlier this year, his team produced tiny LEDs that can be injected into the brain.
The remote-controlled circuits are fashioned on super-thin silk and are responsive to radio frequencies. The team builds the capacitors, inductors, and resistors using water-soluble and biocompatible materials: silicon nanomembranes, which work as semiconductors; magnesium, which already plays an important role in biological systems; silicon dioxide or magnesium oxide as insulators; and silk, for the substrate upon which the circuits are crafted.
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