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Vol. 18 (2026)

Thin-Film-Engineered Self-Assembly of 3D Coaxial Microfluidics with a Tunable Polyimide Membrane for Bioelectronic Power

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-026-02188-7
Aleksandr I. Egunov
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Hongmei Tang
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Pablo E. Saenz
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Dmitriy D. Karnaushenko
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Yumin Luo
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Chao Zhong
State Key Laboratory of Quantitative Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Materials Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China
Xinyu Wang
State Key Laboratory of Quantitative Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Materials Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China
Yang Huang
Advanced Materials Thrust, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Nansha, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
Pavel Fedorov
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Leandro Merces
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Minshen Zhu
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Daniil Karnaushenko
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany
Oliver G. Schmidt
Research Center for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany

Corresponding Author: Oliver G. Schmidt

oliver.schmidt@main.tu-chemnitz.de

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 18 (2026), Article Number: 342

Abstract

Thin-film self-assembly of three-dimensional (3D) microsystems presents a compelling route to integrate complex functionalities into ultra-compact volumes; yet, strategies for incorporating tunable ion-conducting elements remain limited. Here, we introduce a strain-induced self-assembly platform that transforms lithographically patterned multilayer thin films into functional 3D coaxial Swiss-roll microtubes with total active volumes below 1 µL. A key innovation is the monolithic integration of a chemically tunable polyimide proton exchange membrane, enabling post-fabrication optimization of ionic transport that balances proton transport with mediator blocking. We further implement a dual-mode operational scheme that decouples microbial metabolism from electrochemical power generation, revealing biofouling, not chemical fouling or membrane degradation, as the dominant failure mechanism in conventional architectures. Critically, optimally treated polyimide membranes exhibit excellent recoverability after fouling, while cell-free mode operation maintains stable performance by physically excluding microorganisms from the microelectronic environment. This integrated bio-electronic microsystem achieves a volumetric power density of ~ 3.1 mW cm⁻3 within an ultra-compact footprint of 4.16 mm2. Our work establishes a scalable thin-film engineering approach to create tunable, 3D bioelectronic power sources for autonomous microsystems.


Highlights:
1 A bottom-up, strain-induced self-assembly strategy transforms 2D thin-film stacks into 3D coaxial Swiss-roll microsystems.
2 Monolithic integration of a lithographically patterned, chemically tunable polyimide nanomembrane serves as a programmable proton exchange component.
3 Ultra-compact bioelectronic power supply achieves a volumetric power density of ~3.1 mW cm⁻³ within a 0.80 µL active volume and a 4.16 mm² footprint.
4 Sustainable dual-mode operation decouples microbial metabolism from power generation, eliminating biofouling and enhancing long-term stability.
5 The platform demonstrates scalable fabrication (>85% yield) and provides a versatile architecture for integrable biohybrid devices.

Keywords

Self-assembly 3D microfluidics Thin-film membranes Coaxial structure Microbial fuel cells Bioelectronics
Egunov, Aleksandr I., Hongmei Tang, Pablo E. Saenz, Dmitriy D. Karnaushenko, Yumin Luo, Chao Zhong, Xinyu Wang, Yang Huang, Pavel Fedorov, Leandro Merces, Minshen Zhu, Daniil Karnaushenko, and Oliver G. Schmidt. 2026. “Thin-Film-Engineered Self-Assembly of 3D Coaxial Microfluidics With a Tunable Polyimide Membrane for Bioelectronic Power”. Nano-Micro Letters 18 (April):342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-026-02188-7.
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