Self-Powered Multifunctional Transient Bioelectronics

Controllable degradation and excellent biocompatibility during/after a lifetime endow emerging transient electronics with special superiority in implantable biomedical applications. Currently, most of these devices need external power sources, limiting their real-world utilizations. Optimizing existing bioresorbable electronic devices requires natural-material-based construction and, more importantly, diverse or even all-in-one multifunctionalization. Herein, silk-based implantable, biodegradable, and multifunctional systems, self-powered with transient triboelectric nanogenerators (T(2)ENGs), for real-time in vivo monitoring and therapeutic treatments of epileptic seizures, are reported. These T(2)ENGs are of customizable in vitro/in vivo operating life and biomechanical sensitivity via the adjustments of silk molecular size, surface structuralization, and device configuration. Functions, such as drug delivery and structural-integrity optical readout (parallel to electronic signals), are enabled for localized anti-infection and noninvasive degradation indication, respectively. A proof-of-principle wireless system is built with mobile-device readout and smart treatment triggered by specific symptoms (i.e., epilepsy), exhibiting the practical potential of these silk T(2)ENGs as self-powered, transient, and multifunctional implantable bioelectronic platforms.