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Neuromorphic Devices

2D MoS2 Neuromorphic Devices for Brain-Like

Computational Systems
Jie Jiang, Junjie Guo, Xiang Wan, Yi Yang, Haipeng Xie, Dongmei Niu, Junliang Yang,
Jun He,* Yongli Gao, and Qing Wan*

Hardware implementation of artificial synapses/neurons with 2D solid-state devices

is of great significance for nanoscale brain-like computational systems. Here, 2D
MoS2 synaptic/neuronal transistors are fabricated by using poly(vinyl alcohol) as the
laterally coupled, proton-conducting electrolytes. Fundamental synaptic functions,
such as an excitatory postsynaptic current, paired-pulse facilitation, and a dynamic
filter for information transmission of biological synapse, are successfully emulated.
Most importantly, with multiple input gates and one modulatory gate, spiking-
dependent logic operation/modulation, multiplicative neural coding, and neuronal
gain modulation are also experimentally demonstrated. The results indicate that the
intriguing 2D MoS2 transistors are also very promising for the next-generation of
nanoscale neuromorphic device applications.

Today digital computers are based on vvon Neumann archi- increasingly inefficient when it meets complicated computa-
tecture, where the memory and processor are physically tion or real-time processing of visual/speech recognition.[1]
separated. Despite the great achievements made so far, In contrast, the human brain consists of ≈1011 neurons, and
this conventional von Neumann architecture is becoming each neuron is connected with adjacent neurons through
103–104 synapses.[2] It is a highly parallel, fault-tolerance,
energy-efficient, and event-driven information processing
Prof. J. Jiang, J. Guo, Dr. H. Xie, Prof. D. Niu, system, which is fundamentally different from the conven-
Prof. J. Yang, Prof. J. He, Prof. Y. Gao
tional von Neumann computer.[2] Therefore, an emerging
Hunan Key Laboratory of Super Microstructure
and Ultrafast Process field of brain-inspired neuromorphic computing is proposed
School of Physics and Electronics to break this von Neumann bottleneck, which takes the
Central South University advantage of massive parallelism that comes from distributed
Changsha, Hunan 410083, China computing and localized storage in networks.[3–7]
E-mail: junhe@csu.edu.cn As a key element in the human brain, each synapse con-
Dr. X. Wan, Dr. Y. Yang, Prof. Q. Wan nects two adjacent neurons, and its synaptic strength (weight)
School of Electronic Science and Engineering and Collaborative can be precisely adjusted by the concentrations of ionic spe-
Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures
cies, such as Ca2+, Na+, Mg+, etc.[2,8,9] Synaptic plasticity is a
Nanjing University
Nanjing 210093, China general mechanism that regulates the experience-dependent
wanqing@nju.edu.cn change in connectivity between neurons, and it is believed
Dr. X. Wan, Dr. Y. Yang, Prof. Q. Wan to underlie learning and memory of the biological brain.[9]
Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices and Integrated Technology Thus, the hardware implementation of biological synapses
Institute of Microelectronics with solid-state devices is of utmost importance for realizing
Chinese Academy of Sciences brain-inspired computational systems and real-time brain
Beijing 100029, China simulators. Historically, solid-state synapse elements have
Prof. Y. Gao been emulated by silicon-based metal-oxide-semiconductor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
(CMOS) circuits using tens of transistors.[10,11] However, this
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627, USA
approach consumes a substantial area and energy on the
chip, which is not feasible for large-scale integration. In the
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201700933 past few years, different kinds of two-terminal emerging

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memory that show an electrically triggered resistive switching
phenomenon have been proposed for artificial synaptic
devices that can be programmed in an analog fashion, such
as Ag2S- or Cu2S-based atomic switches,[3,12,13] Ge2Sb2Te5-
based phase-change memory,[14] metal-oxide-based resistive
switching memory,[1,15–17] etc. Using these artificial elements,
some synaptic behaviors, like synaptic plasticity, spike-timing-
dependent plasticity (STDP), and self-learning ability, have
been successfully emulated. More recently, three-terminal
devices have been proposed as artificial neuromorphic syna­
pses for emulating biological synaptic functions. Several
groups have reported the three-terminal artificial synapses by
using carbon nanotube transistors,[18] nickelate-based transis-
tors,[19] and oxide-based transistors,[20–22] respectively. Typical
synapse functions, such as dynamic logic, self-learning, STDP,
etc., have been successfully demonstrated with these three-
terminal artificial synaptic/neuron devices. Such devices can
greatly broaden artificial synaptic electronics to overcome
the limitations of previous materials and device architecture,
which provides a new way to realize neural networks and
brain-like neuromorphic computation.
At the same time, as the traditional semiconductor scaling
closes to its physical limits, atomically layered 2D materials
have attracted growing interests since the first discovery of
graphene in 2004 and the later Nobel Prize of Physics in 2010,
respectively.[23–31] Compared to zero-band-gap graphene, MoS2
is recently considered as one of the most promising 2D mate-
rials for replacing the widely explored 2D graphene, because
it is a semiconducting, 2D layered transition-metal dichalcoge-
nide, with a band gap changing from 1.2 eV in the bulk to 1.8 eV
in monolayers.[32–34] With these intriguing electronic and optical
properties, and special atomically scalable structure advantages,
the 2D MoS2-based devices exhibit high promise for many
state-of-the-art electronic applications, such as photovoltaic
solar cells,[35,36] flexible electronics,[37,38] advanced ultrasmall
transistors,[39,40] integrated circuits,[41,42] etc. Recently, we note
that Arnold et al. have reported an interesting work to mimic
neurotransmitter release by using interface trapping/detrap-
ping in MoS2 transistors.[43] The authors argue that the trap-
ping/detrapping mechanism is depended on ambient water and
oxygen molecules adsorption/desorption. Although this work is
of great interest, the underlying mechanism may limit its poten-
tial neuromorphic applications (need the ambient water and
oxygen molecules). Therefore, up to now the 2D MoS2-based
neuromorphic device still remains largely unexplored.
In this Communication, for the first time, proof-of-prin-
ciple neuromorphic devices with multiple presynaptic inputs
are proposed based on a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) proton-
conducting electrolyte, laterally coupled, 2D MoS2 electric-
double-layer (EDL) transistor. The choice of MoS2 in this
work lies in two reasons: First is the growing interest in 2D
layered semiconductors as promising candidates for future
solid-state nanodevices due to their atomically thin body
that allows for aggressive scaling and excellent electrostatic
control. Second, and most importantly, in this attractive 2D
nanoscale community, an artificial intelligence based on 2D
neuromorphic synaptic device is still lacking. Therefore, we
develop the atomically layered MoS2 as a channel material
in the synaptic device, which is of great significance and high
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importance. However, up to now, synaptic plasticity modula-
tion through an electric field is to be investigated in the 2D
MoS2 materials. In this work, such synaptic plasticity modula-
tion can be successfully implemented by the novel electric-
double-layer gating approach. Such important device physics
can be further developed for more advanced synaptic/neu-
ronal neuromorphic computing, such as an excitatory post-
synaptic current (EPSC), paired-pulse facilitation (PPF), and
dynamic filter. Most importantly, with multiple presynaptic
inputs, spiking-dependent logic operation/modulation, mul-
tiplicative neural coding, and neuronal gain modulation for
spatiotemporally correlated signal processing of biological
neurons are emulated in such a neuromorphic device. Such
a neuromorphic demonstration in a MoS2-based device
can represent a great step toward next-generation, smart,
nanoscale electronic devices with artificial intelligence, such
as smart machines and man–machine interfaces.
The insets of Figure S1a (Supporting Information)
exhibits the molecular structure of the PVA membrane and
a sandwiched metal/PVA/metal structure for measuring the
PVA capacitance, respectively. Figure S1a (Supporting Infor-
mation) shows frequency-dependent specific capacitances
(Ci) of the PVA membrane, with the frequency ranging from
1.0 Hz to 100 kHz. The Ci exhibits a low value of 1–3 nF cm−2
at high frequency in the domain of 70 Hz to 100 kHz, then
increases with decreasing frequency, and finally reaches to a
maximum value of ≈2 µF cm−2 at 1.0 Hz. Such a high capaci-
tance is due to the mobile-ions-induced EDL effect,[44–46]
which will be discussed later. Figure S1b (Supporting Informa-
tion) shows the leakage current curves of the PVA film in the
voltage range from −1.5 to 1.5 V. The maximum leakage cur-
rent is only ≈0.5 nA during this measurement. Interestingly,
at zero voltage, there is an offset in the current (in both direc-
tions), which indicates that amounts of charged ions (i.e., an
internal electric field) are present in the PVA membrane, and
its slow response to the external bias finally results in a signifi­
cant clockwise hysteresis. It is to be noted that the transient
leakage current is associated with the ionic migration, which
is directly depended on the external voltage magnitude.[47,48]
If the external voltage is small, the EDL gating process is
corresponded with the “electrostatic modulating process”,
and the leakage current is accordingly small. However, if
the external voltage is relatively large, the EDL gating pro-
cess is corresponded with the “electrochemical doping pro-
cess”, and the leakage current becomes large. In this work,
the applied gate voltage during the measurements is limited
within 1.5 V, which results in an acceptable leakage current
(≤0.5 nA). Most importantly, we use a solid organic electro-
lyte, poly(vinyl alcohol), in this work, rather than a traditional
liquid electrolyte, which usually has a large leakage current
due to its liquid nature. These two reasons can guarantee that
the leakage current during the measurements does not have a
significant effect on the device performance. Figure S1c (Sup-
porting Information) shows the X-ray photo­electron spec-
troscopy (XPS) C1s core levels of the PVA membrane. The
synthesized profiles (black line) are overlaid on the experi-
mental data (black dot). The C1s spectra can be well fitted
by four peaks, which are indicated by colored lines. There
are two prominent peaks corresponding to the CH2 group
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(285.0 eV) and the alcoholic CHOH group (286.5 eV).[49]
The remaining two peaks are the CO group (287.8 eV)
and amorphous carbon (284.5 eV), which may be ascribed
to environmental carbon contamination during the sample
preparation and/or subsequent X-ray-induced transforma-
tion in the XPS measurement.[49,50] Figure S1d (Supporting
Information) further shows the Fourier transform infrared
spectroscopy (FTIR) of the PVA membrane. From this
figure, it clearly reveals the major peaks associated with the
PVA membrane. For instance, the most prominent peaks are
linked to CH stretching at 2930 cm−1 and OH stretching
at 3432 cm−1, respectively.[51,52] Intramolecular and inter-
molecular hydrogen bondings are expected to occur among
PVA chains due to high hydrophilic forces. The remaining
two peaks from 1096 to 1637 cm−1 are originated from the
CO stretching and CO stretching, respectively.[51,52] These
results are very consistent with the XPS measurements. Based
on the above results, a proton-conducting mechanism can be
proposed in the hydrogen-bond-rich polymers. As shown in
the inset of Figure S1d (Supporting Information), through
a Grotthuss mechanism, the sequence of proton hopping
occurs between hydroxyl groups and water molecules under
an external electric field.[44,53–56] Therefore, accumulation
of mobile protons at the PVA/metal interface would result
in a large EDL capacitance, and thus a strong electric-field
coupling effect, which is very helpful to realize the artificial
synaptic electronics. Here, it should be noted that compared
to the traditional dielectrics like Al2O3 or HfO2 or h-BN (all
of them do not have enough charged ions), the EDL electro-
lyte has many mobile charged ions, which is helpful to realize
Figure 1.  a) A schematic picture of the 2D MoS2 synaptic transistor. b) A top-view optical image of the completed device. c) Transfer curve of the
MoS2 transistor with a fixed bias of VDS = 0.1 V. d) The corresponding output curve of MoS2 transistor.
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the neuromorphic computation. Although the EDL transistor
may have the issue of low-frequency operation, we note that
in a human brain the typical frequency of neural activities is
just within the low-frequency domain (1–30 Hz). It is the ion
movements (electric/chemical process) that play a central role
in the neural activities of the human brain, such as synaptic
integration and neuronal computation. Therefore, although
the EDL gating would make the device slow, it is reasonable
and acceptable for some specific applications, especially for
some low-frequency applications such as the artificial neuro-
morphic electronics in this work (that is to say, to mimic the
synaptic/neuronal computation by using such a solid device).
Figure 1a shows the schematic picture of the 2D, proton
conducting, PVA-coupled MoS2 transistor. A coplanar
late­ral gate is coupled with a 2D layered MoS2 channel by
a PVA-based proton conductor. A top-view optical image of
the completed device can be shown in Figure 1b. It exhibits
a clear image where two gold electrodes are bridged by a
MoS2 flake, and a lateral gate is located near the MoS2 flake
in the same plane. The thickness of the MoS2 flakes can be
measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). As shown in
Figure S2a (Supporting Information), a MoS2 flake with a
thickness of ≈6.5 nm is observed in our device. Based on a
0.65 nm thickness per layer value,[32] the number of layers in
this MoS2 flake should be ≈10 layers. The inset in Figure S2a
(Supporting Information) shows a schematic picture of lay-
ered atomic structure for MoS2 flake whose structure is com-
posed of stacks of layers separated by van der Waals forces.
Figure S2b (Supporting Information) shows the Raman
spectra of the exfoliated MoS2 samples tested in dark and
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air ambient environment. Two major peaks are located at
≈384 and ≈409 cm−1, which correspond to the E 12g and A1g
modes,[57] respectively. Vibration of the E 12g mode involves the
in-plane opposing motions of sulfur and molybdenum atoms,
and that of the A1g mode is the out-of-plane relative motions
of sulfur atoms,[57] as shown in the insets of Figure S2b (Sup-
porting Information). The transfer characteristics (IDS – VGS)
with a fixed bias of VDS = 0.1 V in linear region (VGS − VTH >
VDS) is shown in Figure 1c by sweeping the VGS from −1.5 to
1.5 V and then sweeping back again. During all of our measure-
ments, we set a constant and small bias of VDS = 0.1 V. This small
and constant voltage is used to “read” the postsynaptic current
and meanwhile avoid the coupling of VDS with VGS. From this
figure, it is clear that the device can operate at a low voltage
(1.5 V) and exhibit high current on-off ratios (Ion/off > 104).
Interestingly, the device shows a clear anticlockwise hyster-
esis, which may be ascribed to the presence of mobile pro-
tons in the PVA polymer. As shown in Figure 1d, the typical
output curve can be measured by sweeping the VDS from 0
to 1 V with a fixed VGS from −1 to 1.5 V in 0.5 V steps. Good
pinch-off characteristics and excellent linear character are
observed in the high VDS and low VDS regimes, respectively.
Such good pinch-off characteristics are due to a strong gate-
modulation by the EDL electrolyte, because the typical
operation voltage of traditional MoS2 transistor with bottom-
gated, thermal-grown SiO2 dielectric is usually more than
20 V, while the operation voltage of this device is below 1.5 V.
These results strongly indicated that it is a typical polymer–
proton–conductor-gated 2D transistor and is very meaningful
for artificial synapse. Here, we should point out that the dis-
tance between the channel and the gate electrode should
affect strongly to the operational speed of the device. To
address this issue in our proton-conducting neuromorphic
device, frequency-dependent phase angle measurements are
performed with different distances between the channel and
the coplanar gate (Dchannel-gate = 30, 60, 90 µm, respectively).
As shown in Figure S3a (Supporting Information), it is evident
that at the low frequency the phase angle changes from −45°
(more capacitive) to −30° (more resistive) when the Dchannel-gate
increases from 30 to 90 µm, which implies that the ion migra-
tion does not have enough time to response for Dchannel-gate =
90 µm (compared to Dchannel-gate = 30 µm). We can define a
critical frequency (f) at the phase angle of −45°. It is clear that
f3 > f2 > f1 when the Dchannel-gate increases from 30 to 60 µm and
then to 90 µm, respectively. The capacitance measurements
can further confirm this point, as shown in Figure S3b (Sup-
porting Information). For the frequency is more than ≈1 kHz,
the capacitance does not change significantly. However, at
the low-frequency domain (<1 kHz), the capacitance decays
more slowly for Dchannel-gate = 30 µm, compare for Dchannel-gate =
90 µm. Therefore, a larger Dchannel-gate would result in a lower
operational speed in such neuromorphic device. The under-
lying device physics may be ascribed from the ion migration
limitation at the low-frequency domain in such a proton-con-
ducting neuromorphic device.
Figure 2a shows a schematic diagram for a neural net-
work in which nodes (neurons) are connected by lines where
the synapses are located at the junctions between adjacent
neurons. It is evident that every node parallelly processes
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signals from the preceding nodes and then transmits it to the
next layer.[4] Normally, the node can provide an adding for
the presignals, which are scaled with weight (i.e., synapse).
Following this, the output of the node corresponds to the sum
of input signals. Interestingly, the neural functionality in such
neural network can be generally expressed with the synaptic
weights, which can be modulated in biological processes.[4]
Figure 2b shows a magnified schematic diagram for two adja-
cent neurons with a synapse, which is a key element in neural
network of human brain. For a typical synaptic connection,
neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic neuron
into the synaptic cleft when an action potential arrives.[2,8,9]
These neurotransmitters can diffuse across the synaptic
cleft, then couple with the receptors in the post-neuron,
and finally trigger a subsequent action potential in the post-
neuron. Similar to this architecture, our artificial 2D MoS2
synaptic transistor uses the coplanar lateral gate as the pre-
synaptic input terminal and 2D ultrathin MoS2 channel with
source/drain electrodes as the postsynaptic output terminal.
Figure 2c shows the typical EPSC of 2D MoS2 synaptic tran-
sistor triggered by a presynaptic spike (1 V, 10 ms). A VDS of
0.1 V was applied between the source and drain electrode for
EPSC measurement. A peak value of EPSC ≈ 23.6 nA was
observed at the end of the spike where it gradually decayed
back to the resting current (≈0.4 nA) in ≈300 ms. Such EPSC
behavior is quite similar to the EPSC process in a biological
excitatory synapse.[2] Here, we should note that the transfer
curve of MoS2 transistor with liquid pure water as the gate
dielectric shows the similar anticlockwise hysteresis with the
PVA-gated device, as shown in Figure S4a (Supporting
Information). To further examine the effect of water on
the neuromorphic operation of MoS2 transistor, the EPSC
response of MoS2 neuromorphic transistor was measured
by triggering a presynaptic spike (1 V, 10 ms), as shown in
Figure S4b (Supporting Information). However, the peak
value of EPSC recovered to its original value within a short
time (<10 ms) at the end of the spike, compared to the PVA-
gated MoS2 transistor. The reason may be due to the lack of
enough charged ions inside the pure water, while the number
of charged ions in PVA solution is much more. At the same
time, it should also be noted that synaptic plasticity due to
long-term potentiation occurs at a much longer timescale than
demonstrated in this work. Further improvement for long-
term potentiation may include the large voltage bias adjus-
tion or exploring the new solid electrolyte with more charged
ions inside. The energy consumption of single spike event can
be extracted from the equation W = VDS ∫ Ipeak dt, where VDS,
Ipeak, and dt are source–drain voltage, spike peak current, and
spike duration time, respectively. As a consequence, the energy
consumption of a single spike event can be estimated to be
23.6 pJ, which is significantly lower than that of the artificial
synapse using a conventional CMOS circuit,[10,11] and is com-
parable to that of the reported hardware-based artificial syn-
apse.[5–7,16,17] Herein, the spike duration-dependent EPSC can
also be studied (spike amplitude: 1 V), as shown in Figure 2d.
The amplitudes of the EPSC increase from ≈23.6 to 294 nA for
spike duration time ranging from 10 to 1000 ms, respectively.
Interestingly, the amplitudes of the EPSC increase almost lin-
early within a small spike duration range below 100 ms, while
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Figure 2.  a) Schematic diagram for a neural network in which nodes (neurons) are connected by lines where the junctions between neurons
are corresponding to synapses. b) A magnified schematic diagram for two adjacent neurons with a synapse. c) A typical EPSC of MoS2 synaptic
transistor triggered by a presynaptic spike (1.0 V, 10 ms). d) Spike duration-dependent EPSC, where the spike amplitude: 1.0 V. Inset: fitting EPSC
decay phenomenon by using the exponential decay model. e) A pair of presynaptic spikes and a triggered EPSC are shown versus time. f) A 2D PPF
index surface is summarized as a function of V+ and V−.

it will get saturated when the spike duration is above 100 ms.
This biological response can be simply explained as follows:
in the beginning, more and more protons will migrate to the
2D MoS2 channel interface and thus increase the channel
conductivity (i.e., synaptic plasticity) of 2D synaptic device.[44]
However, there are only limited activated protons in the PVA
membrane. As a result, the EPSC amplitude would be gradu-
ally saturated with a longer spike duration time. Furthermore,
as shown in the inset of Figure 2d, such proton-induced EPSC
decay phenomenon can be well fitted by using the exponential
decay model as the following equation[20]
 t − t0 
A ( t ) = A0 + A1 ⋅ exp  −
 τ 
 (1)
where A0, A1, τ, and t0 are the final value of decay current, the
EPSC amplitude, retention time constant, and the time when
the presynaptic spike finished, respectively. Fitting the data to
Equation (1), the τ is found to be ≈13 ms, which indicates that
the feature time of proton migration is about 13 ms.
In a biological system, PPF is a form of short-term syn-
aptic plasticity and plays a key role in decoding the tem-
poral information for auditory or visual signals.[2] PPF (i.e.,
neural facilitation in neuroscience) is a typical phenomenon
in which EPSC evoked by the spike is increased when the
second spike closely follows a previous spike.[2,8,9,58] Such a
typical neuron behavior can also be mimicked in our artificial
2D MoS2 synaptic transistor. Figure 2e shows the EPSC trig-
gered by a pair of presynaptic spikes with a pulse interval (Δt)

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of 40 ms. Two continuous presynaptic spikes were applied on
the presynaptic input (coplanar metal gate) in close suc-
cession: pulse voltage (V+) = 1.5 V, pulse duration = 10 ms,
and base voltage (V−) = −0.6 V. From this figure, it is clear
that the EPSC triggered by the second presynaptic spike
(658.3 nA) is much larger than that triggered by the first one
(511.7 nA). When the interval is smaller than the ionic relax-
ation time, some of the protons triggered by the first spike
could not come back to their equilibrium position. Then the
channel current is thus facilitated by the EDL modulation of
the residual protons at the MoS2/PVA interface. Here, the
PPF index of the 2D MoS2 artificial synapse can be defined
A term plasticity would result in a temporal filtering through
as follows: PPF = 2 × 100%, where A1 and A2 are the EPSC
A1
peak of the first and second spikes, respectively. As shown in
Figure 2f, a 2D PPF index surface can be summarized as a
function of presynaptic voltage of V+ and V− . From this 2D
surface, the PPF index can be continuously tuned accordingly.
It is clear that a more negative V− and positive V+ result in
a larger PPF value. The maximum PPF index is observed to
be as high as 367 with the V− of −0.9 V and V+ of 1.5 V. Such
a modulated PPF index is very beneficial for neuromorphic
computing in the biological system.
Synaptic plasticity is defined as the efficacy variation
during synaptic transmission.[2,59] Such efficacy variation
consumes tens of milliseconds which can also be called facili-
tation or short-term depression. Such neuronal behaviors
are often activated by different temporal events. Thus, short-
impeding signal transmission or facilitating signal transmis-
sion for different patterns.[2,59] The inset of Figure 3a shows
a schematic diagram of synaptic filter. In this model, neurons

Figure 3.  a) EPSCs recorded in response to the stimulus train with different frequencies. Inset: a schematic diagram showing the convergence
of depressing and facilitating afferent synapses for the generation of a temporal filtering function. b) EPSC amplitude ratio (A10/A1) plotted as a
function of the presynaptic spike frequency. Inset: a schematic diagram showing artificial MoS2 synapse for the generation of a high-pass temporal
filtering function. c) A schematic diagram for dendritic integration in single dendritic branch. d) A two-layer network model of hierarchical parallel
processing of dendrite. e) EPSCs triggered by two spatiotemporally correlated inputs (1.0 V, 10 ms) with different time intervals of −50, 0, and
50 ms, respectively. The EPSCs triggered by each individual input are also shown in the top of the figure. f) The dynamic logic established by the
two spatiotemporally correlated spikes. The EPSC amplitudes were measured at t = 0.

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receive inputs from two classes of synapses: some exhibits
strong short-term depression, while others show strong short-
term facilitation. Such depression generally occurs at “high-
Pr” (high probability of release) synapses, whereas short-term
facilitation is more prevalent at “low-Pr” (low probability
of release) synapses.[59] Accordingly, the short-term syn-
aptic depression accounts for low-pass temporal filtering,
and short-term synaptic facilitation accounts for high-pass
temporal filtering, respectively. Because a shorter Δt results
in a larger PPF index, a high-pass filter may be realized in
our artificial 2D MoS2 synaptic device.[59] Figure 3a shows
the EPSC responses of our device to the stimulus train, with
different frequencies ranging from 10 to 50 Hz. The stimulus
train at each frequency consists of ten successive stimulus
spikes (1 V, 10 ms), and the VDS is biased to be 0.1 V during
EPSC measurements. From this figure, it is clear that at low-
frequency spike stimulation the peak value of the EPSC
increases slightly, while at high-frequency stimulation the
peak value increases significantly, which strongly indicates
that our artificial 2D MoS2 synaptic transistor can actually act
as a high-pass filter. Here, the frequency-dependent gain can
be defined as the ratio between the tenth EPSC (A10) and
the first EPSC (A1), as shown in Figure 3b. Interestingly, the
gain increases linearly from ≈3.5 to ≈13.5 when the stimulus
frequency changes from 10 to 50 Hz. Therefore, the results
presented here indicate that the 2D MoS2 synaptic transistor
can act as a good dynamic high-pass filter for information
transmission, as shown in the inset of Figure 3b. Extracting
information concerning fast changes in signal amplitude and
rejecting that from slow fluctuations, that is, high-pass tem-
poral filtering, are central to the utility of the jamming avoid-
ance response.[59] Such high-pass filter function mimicked
here is very interesting for computing the direction of motion
of an electric image and therefore directional selectivity in
artificial nervous systems.[60]
As shown in the schematic diagram of Figure 3c, den-
drites deliver electrical/chemical signals to the soma, but they
are not just simple conductors of information.[60,61] Dendritic
integration can be performed in single dendritic branch,
which plays an important role in information transformation
including addition of nonsimultaneous unitary events (tem-
poral summation) and addition of unitary events occurring
simultaneously in different regions of the dendrite (spatial
summation).[60,61] Figure 3d exhibits a two-layer network
model with hierarchical parallel processing of dendrite. Pre-
synaptic signals can be integrated locally within dendritic sub-
units, which nonlinearly computes the sum of its local inputs.
Dendritic spikes are regenerative potentials initiated locally
in dendritic branches when input is sufficiently clustered
in space and time. Such spikes, which are relatively ubiqui-
tous across different cell types, can be effectively integrated
depended on a threshold for the local spatiotemporally dis-
tributed inputs.[61] Here, two spatiotemporally correlated
stimuli of dendritic spikes (1 V, 10 ms) can be used to mimic
the spatiotemporal dynamic logic in such a 2D MoS2 synapse
transistor, as shown in Figure 3e. First, the time of spike1 is
defined as t = 0 ms. When the spike2 is triggered earlier than
spike1 (e.g., earlier with 50 ms, i.e., Δt = −50 ms), the residual
protons triggered by spike2 can enhance the following
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EPSC triggered by spike1. Accordingly, EPSC measured at
zero time is clearly larger than the EPSC triggered only by
spike1. As a contrast, when the spike2 is triggered later than
spike1 (e.g., Δt = +50 ms), the EPSC measured at zero time
is equal to the amplitude triggered only by spike1. It is to
be noted that the EPSC even gets much larger if the spike1
and spike2 arrive at the same time (i.e., Δt = 0 ms). Figure 3f
illustrates the summarized dynamic logic established by the
spatiotemporal correlated spikes, which is unsymmetrical
with increasing Δt. If the Δt > 0, the resulted EPSC is equal
to the amplitude triggered only by spike1. While if the Δt < 0,
protons accumulated at the MoS2/PVA interface will drift
gradually back to their equilibrium position due to the con-
centration gradient, and the resulted EPSC will increase
with decreasing the |Δt|. Therefore, the maximum EPSC of
≈138 nA could be obtained at Δt = 0. Such a mimicked spa-
tiotemporal dynamic logic is very meaningful for neuromor-
phic computing or artificial neural network.
Figure 4a shows a schematic diagram for an artificial
neuron with branched dendrites, where Wi (i = 1,2…n and m)
represents each synaptic input weight. Such dendrites can pro-
cess and integrate many presynaptic inputs and then transmit
the output signals to other neurons through a so-called
axon.[61] Here, a multiple-gate 2D MoS2 synaptic transistor
can be proposed for mimicking the multiple-presynaptic den-
dritic integration, as schematically shown in Figure 4b. G1 and
G2 represent two presynaptic driving-input terminals, and Gm
represents a presynaptic modulatory terminal, respectively.
Figure 4c shows such a spiking logic response by two presyn-
aptic driving inputs and a modulatory input (0.2 V, 10 ms).
From this figure, the postsynaptic spike current exhibits a
maximum value of ≈0.72 µA only when both presynaptic
driving inputs are applied with high spike voltage. Here, if we
set a threshold line with 0.5 µA of the postsynaptic current
for defining the state “0” and “1” state, “AND” spike logic
could be obtained in such 2D MoS2 synaptic device. As a con-
trast, the postsynaptic spike current increases to be ≈1.29 µA
when both presynaptic driving inputs are applied with high
spike voltage and a higher modulatory input (1.5 V, 10 ms)
is applied simultaneously, as shown in Figure 4d. Interest-
ingly, the postsynaptic spike current increases nonlinearly to
be above the threshold line when only a single presynaptic
input is applied with a high spiking voltage, which means
that the spiking logic operation changes from “AND” logic
to “OR” logic eventually. Figure 4e further summarizes the
truth tables with different modulatory spike inputs of 0.2 and
1.5 V, respectively. From these tables, it is clear that “AND”
logic and “OR” logic operation can be easily modulated
depending on the third modulatory spiking voltage. At the
same time, if the measured amplitude of EPSC (Isum, both
presynaptic spikes are in high voltage level) is plotted as
a function of the arithmetic EPSC sum (I1 + I2, only single
presynaptic spike is in high voltage level), Figure 4f can sys-
tematically summarize the results with different modula-
tory spiking voltages. It is clear that the amplitudes of EPSC
can be effectively modulated by the spike applied on Gm.
For example, when a spike (1.4 V, 10 ms) is applied on Gm,
a linear synaptic integration behavior is observed. How-
ever, a sublinear synaptic integration is observed when the
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Figure 4.  a) A schematic diagram of an artificial neuron with branched dendrites, where Wi (i = 1, 2…n and m) represents the synaptic weight of
each input. b) A schematic diagram of multiple-gate MoS2 neuromorphic transistor. c) A spiking logic response by two presynaptic driving inputs
and a modulatory input (0.2 V, 10 ms). d) A spiking logic response by two presynaptic driving inputs and a modulatory input (1.5 V, 10 ms). e) The
truth tables for “AND” logic for Vm = 0.2 V and “OR” logic for Vm = 1.5 V, respectively. f) The measured sum plotted as a function of expected sum.

amplitude of Vm is increased to 1.5 V. These results indicate
that the superlinear and sublinear synaptic integration could
be realized through modifying the spiking voltage of the
modulatory terminal. Such results are of great significance
for synaptic electronics and neuromorphic computing.
On top of this, neural coding and gain modulation can
be demonstrated in such multiple-gate MoS2 neuromorphic
device. A neuron with branched dendrites can process and
integrate many presynaptic inputs and then transmit the
output signals to other neurons through a so-called axon.[5]
Understanding how neurons process the rate-coded infor-
mation is of great significance in the neural computation of
the human brain.[2,62] Such rate-coded neuronal process can
be expressed from the relationship between mean input and
output firing rates (i.e., I–O relationship).[63,64] Changes in
the slope (gain) and offset of such relationships represent
defined mathematical operations.[63,64] As shown in Figure 5a,
the slope change denotes the multiplicative operation,
R(x, m) = F(x) × G(m), while the offset (intercept) change
denotes the additive operation, R(x, m) = F(x) + G(m).
Figure 5b schematically shows the rate coding diagram where
the information is encoded by the rate (f = f1 + f2) of driving
inputs. Herein, the driving input parameter in our artifi-
cial 2D neuromorphic device can be defined by the rate of
driving input (i.e., x = f), and the modulatory input para­meter
is defined by the modulatory voltage (m = Vm), and thus
the EPSC amplitude is regarded as the output parameter
in the device output terminal. Figure 5c presents the typical
responses (Vm = 0) to the spike trains with driving inputs
(0.5 V, 10 ms) of a rate of 40 and 100 spikes s−1, respectively.

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Figure 5.  a) A schematic figure of neural coding with multiplicative operation and additive operation, respectively. b) The schematic diagram
of the rate coding scheme in a neuron with two driving synapses and a modulatory synapse. c) The typical EPSC responses (Vm = 0 V) with two
driving spike inputs (0.5 V, 10 ms) with a rate of 40 and 100 spikes s−1, respectively. d) The neuronal I–O relationships with rate coding scheme
modulated by different modulatory voltages of 0, −0.2, and −0.4 V, respectively. Solid lines are the linear fitting results by using the equation
y = kx + b. e) The summarized slopes and x-axis intercepts as a function of Vm through the linear fitting from neuronal I–O relationships. f) Adding
excitation shifts the curve to the left, and inhibition shifts it to the right. Neural gain modulation corresponds to a tipping of the I–O curve, which
results in a change of its slope.

Here, the mean EPSC amplitude (A) can be defined as the
resulted output during neuronal spike response. Accordingly,
the resulted A can be extracted to be 0.22 and 0.48 µA for the
input spike rate of 40 and 100 spikes s−1, respectively. Figure 5d
shows the output A as a function of input spike rate ranging
from 10 to 100 spikes s−1 with different Vm of 0, −0.2, and
−0.4 V, respectively. Interestingly, the output A increased with
increasing the input spike rate by a linear manner. What’s
more, the EPSC output would be decreased a lot when a neg-
ative Vm is applied, which means that an effective neuronal
output modulation could be realized by this way.[63]
Furthermore, a good linear fitting can be performed for
the I–O relationship as shown in the solid line of Figure 5d.
This linear fitting to the I–O relationship can be imple-
mented by using the equation y = kx + b, where the x-axis
intercept can be extracted as xo = − b/k. Figure 5e shows the
slope (k) and x-axis intercept (xo) of the linear fitting as a
function of Vm. The xo is tuned from −4.46 to −0.825 and then
to 5.67 spikes s−1 when the Vm changed from 0 to −0.2 and
then to −0.4 V, respectively. This indicates that an additive
mathematical operation (more specifically, a subtractive
manner) has been realized by decreasing the Vm. At the same
time, more importantly, the slope value sharply decreases
from 4.85 to 3.61 and then to 1.77 nAs/spikes when the Vm is
modulated from 0 to −0.2 and then to −0.4 V, respectively. As
shown in Figure 5f, slope change represents the multiplicative

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operation (i.e., neuronal gain modulation), while the x-axis
intercept change represents the additive operation (adding
excitation shifts the curve to the left, and inhibition shifts it
to the right).[65,66] As a result, neuronal gain modulation has
been successfully implemented through the control of modu-
latory presynaptic input in our multiple-gate 2D MoS2 neuro-
morphic device. Neuronal gain control is of great importance
for processing information in the human brain.[65,66] The
nonlinear multiplicative operation is fundamental to coordi-
nate transformations for object perception and for all kinds
of spatial processing, from eye-hand coordination to naviga-
tion.[65,66] Therefore, such artificial 2D MoS2 neuromorphic
device could be possibly applied in the intelligent neuronal
computing and complex object recognition applications for
future advanced nanoelectronics, which is very hard to be
completed using the traditional approach.
In summary, multigate 2D MoS2 neuromorphic devices
laterally coupled by proton-conducting PVA electrolytes
were fabricated. The coplanar lateral metal gates and 2D
multilayer MoS2 can be regarded as presynapse and post-
synapse, respectively. Multiple presynaptic inputs can be
spatiotemporally coupled in such 2D MoS2 neuromor-
phic transistor. EPSC, PPF, dynamic filter, spatiotemporal
signal dendritic integration, and spike logic realization and
modulation were successfully emulated. Most importantly,
multiplicative neural coding and neuronal gain modulation
were also experimentally demonstrated. Such artificial 2D
MoS2 neuromorphic devices are of great significance for real-
izing the intriguing artificial intelligence in 2D nanoscale neu-
romorphic cognitive systems, such as directional selectivity,
object recognition, sensory processing, etc.
Experimental Section
Fabrication of 2D MoS2 Neuromorphic Transistor: 2D multilayer
MoS2 flakes were exfoliated by using a conventional Scotch-tape
approach. First, multilayer MoS2 flakes were mechanically exfoli-
ated from a bulk crystal using Scotch tape, and subsequently
transfer to a piece of heavily doped silicon substrate with a 300 nm
SiO2 capping layer. The source/drain electrodes and coplanar lat-
eral gates with 30-nm-thick Ni film were deposited by photoli­
thography and DC sputtering method. PVA solution (10 wt% in
water solution) was then drop-casted onto the MoS2 layer as the
top electrolyte.
Characterizations of PVA Membrane and Multilayer MoS2
Flake: Frequency-dependent capacitance of PVA proton conductor
was characterized by a Hioki IM3633-01 LCR Meter. XPS of PVA
film was measured with monochromatic SPECS XRMF Microwave
X-ray source (Al Kα = 1486.7 eV) in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV)
system. The UHV system includes a SPECS PHOIBOS 150 hemi-
spherical energy analyzer and the based pressure is superior to
2 × 10−10 mbar. FTIR of PVA film was measured by a NICOLET 6700
FT-IR equipment. The MoS2 thickness was examined by AFM equip-
ment (NanomanVS+Multimode, Veeco). The Raman spectroscopy
of 2D MoS2 was performed by LABRAM ARAMIS (HORIBA Jobin
YVON S.A.S).
Electrical Measurements of 2D MoS2 Neuromorphic Transistors:
Electrical performance and biological function emulation of the
small 2017, 13, 1700933 © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
neuromorphic devices were measured by a semiconductor para­
meter characterization system (Keithley 4200 SCS) under a relative
humidity of ≈50% at room temperature. Presynaptic spikes were
applied on the coplanar lateral gate electrodes, and postsynaptic
current output was measured by applying a small reading voltage
between the source and drain electrode.
Supporting Information
Supporting Information is available from the Wiley Online Library
or from the author.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Grant Nos. 61404176 and 11334014), National Science
Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant
No. 61425020), the Open-End Fund for the Valuable and Precision
Instruments of Central South University, and the Opening Project of
Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices & Integrated Technology,
Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Received: March 22, 2017
Revised: April 18, 2017
Published online: May 31, 2017
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