Lyophilization-Free Approach to the Fabrication of Conductive Polymer Foams Enabling Photo-Thermo-Electrical-Induced Cell Differentiation under Global Illumination

In this study, we fabricate conductive polymer (PEDOT:PSS) foams with tunable density and mechanical properties via a new and efficient lyophilization-free method and use asymmetric acid treatment to create a PEDOT:PSS scaffold with asymmetric light absorptivity, which helps generate the asymmetric photo-thermo-electrical conversion under simple global illumination. Distinct light absorptivity along the scaffold has been proved to be related to the different doping states via asymmetric acid treatment. Such noninvasive photo-thermo-electrical stimulation significantly induces the expressions of genes related to neural differentiation under an illumination intensity of 240 mW/cm2 for only 30 min. This research will not only provide a new approach to fabricate conductive polymer foams via the lyophilization-free method but also enable the global illumination to provoke the photo-thermo-electrical effect of conductive polymers with asymmetric light absorptivity for thermoelectric conversion and biomedical potential applications in tissue engineering for therapeutic purposes.