title: Heterogeneous silicon mesostructures for lipid-supported bioelectric interfaces.
abstract: Silicon-based materials have widespread application as biophysical tools and biomedical devices. Here we introduce a biocompatible and degradable mesostructured form of silicon with multi-scale structural and chemical heterogeneities. The material was synthesized using mesoporous silica as a template through a chemical vapour deposition process. It has an amorphous atomic structure, an ordered nanowire-based framework and random submicrometre voids, and shows an average Young's modulus that is 2-3 orders of magnitude smaller than that of single-crystalline silicon. In addition, we used the heterogeneous silicon mesostructures to design a lipid-bilayer-supported bioelectric interface that is remotely controlled and temporally transient, and that permits non-genetic and subcellular optical modulation of the electrophysiology dynamics in single dorsal root ganglia neurons. Our findings suggest that the biomimetic expansion of silicon into heterogeneous and deformable forms can open up opportunities in extracellular biomaterial or bioelectric systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.|The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Yuanwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: João L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Carvalho-de-Souza
authors.affiliation: The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.|Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Raymond C S
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.|The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.|The Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT), Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3310-8192
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Isheim
authors.affiliation: The X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaobing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.affiliation: The Research Resources Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA.
authors.forename: Alan W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Nicholls
authors.affiliation: The Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Il Woong
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Ben May Department for Cancer Research, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Jiping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yue
authors.affiliation: The Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Di-Jia
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.|The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Yucai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: De Andrade
authors.affiliation: The X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Xianghui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Luizetta
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Navrazhnykh
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Dara E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Ben May Department for Cancer Research, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaoyang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.|The Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT), Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Seidman
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.|The Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bezanilla
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.|The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.|The Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Bozhi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tian