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Soft sonocapacitor with topologically integrated piezodielectric nanospheres enables wireless epidural closed-loop neuromodulation

  • Zhidong Wei
  • , Fei Jin
  • , Tong Li
  • , Lili Qian
  • , Juan Ma
  • , Fengling Liu
  • , Weiying Zheng
  • , Yu Wang
  • , Siwei Zhang
  • , Ye You
  • , Zhang-Qi Feng*
  • , Ting Wang*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

Abstract

Capacitively coupled electrical stimulation modulates neuronal activity through reversible charging and without charge transfer reactions. This represents a promising and safe neuromodulation scheme but achieving wireless and high capacitive charge density injection remains challenging. Here, we developed a topological fibrous-architecture sonocapacitor (SonoCap) that assembled from piezoelectric-dielectric composite nanosphere (UCapT) and two-dimensional cellulose. UCapT features a unique piezoelectric core-hollow cavity-dielectric cage structure that can efficiently couples ultrasound excitation to achieve piezoelectric electron-capacitance transfer, and its highly assembled SonoCap achieves cumulative charge storage, a high ion-accessible surface area, and macroscopic softness, thereby enabling wireless and high capacitive charge density injection. SonoCap can achieve a capacitive charge density output of up to 9.7 mC cm−2 under 0.63 W cm−2 ultrasound excitation, while generating a negligible Faradaic charge of 2 nC cm−2. We demonstrated that SonoCap can transcranially and epidurally modulate neural circuit dynamics in rat and pig brains, without introducing intracerebral foreign bodies and maintaining ventricular homeostasis. By integrating a deep learning-based closed-loop diagnostic system, on-demand, wireless, and epidural capacitive electrical stimulation treatment for temporal lobe epilepsy can be achieved. The design concept of SonoCap is expected to inspire expanding development of functional capacitive stimulators, potentially promoting the widespread application of capacitive electrical neuromodulation. © The Author(s) 2026.
Original languageEnglish
Article number987
Number of pages19
JournalNature Communications
Volume17
Online published6 Jan 2026
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2026

Funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82472159, 82302406, and 52533005), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M731696, 2022TQ0158 and 2022M721616), Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (2023ZB539 and 2022ZB250), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (30923010307 and 30920041105).

Publisher's Copyright Statement

  • This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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