Polymers promise a more flexible artificial retina

Researchers are investigating a different kind of retinal prosthesis made from semiconductive polymers, a class of carbon-based plastics that can conduct electricity in much the same way that silicon microchips do.These polymers are best known for their use in some types of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, the richly colored screens found in millions of smartphones. But the materials also show promise for a new generation of cheap, flexible, lightweight solar cells. And they show even more promise as soft, flexible bioelectronic interfaces to living tissue — “one of the emerging and very exciting applications of organic semiconductors,” says Carlos Silva, a physicist at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. These applications include drug delivery and biosensors.