Transient Resistive Switching Devices Made from Egg Albumen Dielectrics and Dissolvable Electrodes

^†College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering and ^∥Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

 

^‡ College of Information Science and Engineering, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou 350118, China

^§ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom

^⊥ Institute of Material Research & Innovation, University of Bolton, Deane Road, Bolton BL3 5AB, United KingdomEgg albumen as the dielectric, and dissolvable Mg and W as the top and bottom electrodes are used to fabricate water-soluble memristors. 4 × 4 cross-bar configuration memristor devices show a bipolar resistive switching behavior with a high to low resistance ratio in the range of 1 × 10² to 1 × 10⁴, higher than most other biomaterial-based memristors, and a retention time over 10⁴ s without any sign of deterioration, demonstrating its high stability and reliability.
Metal filaments accompanied by hopping conduction are believed to be responsible for the switching behavior of the memory devices. The Mg and W electrodes, and albumen film all can be dissolved in water within 72 h, showing their transient characteristics. This work demonstrates a new way to fabricate biocompatible and dissolvable electronic devices by using cheap, abundant, and 100% natural materials for the forthcoming bioelectronics era as well as for environmental sensors when the Internet of things takes off.