Development of polymeric blue prosthetic retina photoreceptors

Abstract

Two conjugated polymers with absorption spectra like that of human short-wavelength photoreceptors, or blue cones, are characterised to act as essential components of a sub-retinal flexible prototype prothesis for people suffering from retinal disease affecting photoreceptor cells. Spectrophotometric and transient tests undertaken in unbiased photovoltaic mode in ambient conditions demonstrate that the addition of hole-blocking ZnO layer results in reliably forcing a favourable capacitive charging regime and acts to improve the photoresponse over ten times in one polymer and 45 times in another. We report that the addition of fullerene and non-fullerene acceptor molecules in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ)-active layers make an almost sevenfold measured improvement to extracellular photovoltage for devices operating in an electrolyte environment. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]