Neuromorphic devices assembled from lipid bilayer membranes offer unique advantages for developing low-power, reconfigurable circuitry capable of sensing, signal processing, learning, and memorization involving many types of physical and chemical signatures not possible with solid-state systems. Prototypes of such devices have been demonstrated using lipid-based droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) as neuromorphic elements (e.g., memristors and memcapacitors). Lipid-like amphiphilic oligomers can also self-assemble into DIB membranes but are inherently more structurally and chemically stable than lipids. However, the properties of oligomer DIBs are relatively underexplored compared to their lipid counterparts. In this work, we present a DIB system formed between two aqueous droplets immersed in a mixture of hexadecane oil and a positively charged amphiphilic oligomer (oligodimethylsiloxane imidazolium cation, ODMS-MIM+). We found that the formation and stability of an ODMS-MIM+ DIB can be tuned via physical and chemical controls in a similar manner as lipids, such as ionic strength, polymer concentration, applied electric potential, and so forth. Disjoining pressures based on the oil phase’s ability to solvate the hydrophobic siloxane tails present energetic and entropic barriers to bilayer membrane formation between the neighboring droplets in a DIB, which can be exploited to control nanostructure assembly and packing of the ODMS-MIM+ oligomers at the oil-aqueous interface. The findings presented here may provide guidelines for the rational design of polymer-based electronic elements in the development of bio-inspired neuromorphic devices that are more robust and stable than lipid bilayers.

Self-assembled charged oligomeric bilayers used for next generation electronic elements

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ACS Fall 2022

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