Enzymatic degradation of conjugated polymer semiconductor for organic electrochemical transistors

Marine Batista^a^,^d, Frank Menger^a, Kateryna Solodka^c^,^d, Kui Feng^b, Xugang Guo^b, Anneli Kruve^a, Anna Herland^d^,^e, Biswanath Das^a, Erica Zeglio^a^,^d

^aDepartment of Chemistry, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SE-10691, Sweden

^bSouthern University of Science and Technology, Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

^cDepartment of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

^dAIMES - Center for the Advancement of Integrated Medical and Engineering Sciences at KI and KTH

^eDepartment of Protein Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden

Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2026 Conference (MATSUSSpring26)

I2 Organic materials and devices for sustainable and transient electronics

Barcelona, Spain, 2026 March 23rd - 27th

Organizers: Noemí Contreras-Pereda and Micaela Matta

Oral, Marine Batista, presentation 579
Publication date: 15th December 2025

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are key bioelectronic devices, with applications ranging from biosensors, electrophysiological monitoring, flexible electronics, etc. To date, OECTs have been designed to provide the best possible performance and long-term stability. However, the rise of transient electronics has set a new demand for bioelectronics: the need to combine stable performance under physiological conditions (e.g., humidity, temperature) with safe, controlled degradation into non-toxic products.

While tremendous advances have been made in biodegradable insulating polymers, solutions toward degradable conjugated polymers are still lacking. Recent studies showed that acid-labile imine bonds (C=N) provide degradation under hydrolytic conditions[1,2], but lead to lower mobility compared to state-of-the-art materials and often results in degradation products with known toxicity.

Inspired by recent work in degradable conjugated polymer nanoparticles[3,4], we investigated the enzymatic degradation of a conjugated polymers thin films designed for OECTs. Our work focuses on n-type donor–acceptor polymers with established performances. Here, we show that thin films degrade via the action of hypochlorous acid (HOCl), a reactive oxygen species released by myeloperoxidase: an enzyme produced by immune cells.[5]

We then used UV–Vis spectroscopy, NMR, and mass spectrometry to elucidate the degradation mechanism in presence of HOCl. High-resolution mass spectrometry coupled with machine learning analysis enabled to identify degradation products and evaluate their potential toxicity.

Overall, our results present a new concept of enzymatically degradable high performance conjugated polymers for OECTs.

References:

[1] Chiong, J. A.; Zheng, Y.; Zhang, S.; Ma, G.; Wu, Y.; Ngaruka, G.; Lin, Y.; Gu, X.; Bao, Z. Impact of Molecular Design on Degradation Lifetimes of Degradable Imine-Based Semiconducting Polymers. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144 (8), 3717–3726

[2] Chen, J.; Cong, S.; Liu, R.; Duan, J.; Chen, C.; Yu, D.; Zhu, X.; Ran, C.; Cheng, D.; Li, Z.; McCulloch, I.; Yue, W. Imine-Based Polymeric Mixed Ionic–Electronic Conductors Featuring Degradability and Biocompatibility for Transient Bioinspired Electronics. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2025, 64 (10), e202417921

[3] Wang, Q.; Gan, Z.; Shi, Q.; Li, Y.; Qi, L.; Wu, W.; Hu, F. A Biodegradable Semiconducting Polymer Phototherapeutic Agent for Safe Cancer Phototherapy. Journal of Controlled Release 2024, 368, 265–274

[4] Lyu, Y.; Zeng, J.; Jiang, Y.; Zhen, X.; Wang, T.; Qiu, S.; Lou, X.; Gao, M.; Pu, K. Enhancing Both Biodegradability and Efficacy of Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles for Photoacoustic Imaging and Photothermal Therapy. ACS Nano 2018, 12 (2), 1801–1810

[5] Arnhold, J. The Dual Role of Myeloperoxidase in Immune Response. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2020, 21 (21), 8057

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