Fully Degradable Memristors and Humidity Sensors Based on a Tyrosine-Rich Peptide

Transient electronics, a form of electronic devices that disappear physically after a certain operation time, have attracted considerable interest in the area of bioelectronics. Due to their biodegradability and biocompatibility, bioderived materials have been applied to various kinds of transient electronics. This work presents fully degradable memristors and humidity sensors based on a tyrosine-rich peptide. The memristors exhibit a high on/off ratio (>106), stable endurance (∼104 s), and analog switching behavior. The humidity sensors show high sensitivity, in which the current changes by 3 orders of magnitude in the relative humidity range of 10–90%. By means of a rapid response and recovery time, the sensors can be used to monitor human respiration in real time. These devices are rapidly dissolvable under physiological conditions within 1 min. These results open up the field of biocompatible multifunctional nanoelectronics toward the development of bio-implantable processors and sensors.