Bismuth sulfide (Bi2S3) enabled
us to transform
light signals into electrical signals via the photoelectric effect,
which exhibited tremendous prospects on constructing wireless electrical
stimulation for accelerating nerve regeneration. However, too rapid
recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs weakened
its photocurrent. Herein, the Bi2S3/Ti3C2T
x
heterojunction was synthesized
by in situ growth of Bi2S3 nanoparticles on
Ti3C2T
x
nanosheets
and then mixed with poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) powder to fabricate
the Bi2S3/Ti3C2T
x
-PLLA conduit. At the heterojunction interfaces,
Ti3C2T
x
with a more
positive Fermi energy level could form interfacial potential difference
with Bi2S3 to promote electron–hole pair
separation. Meanwhile, Ti3C2T
x
with excellent conductivity could provide channels for photogenerated
electron transmission, thus facilitating the generation of the photocurrent.
Photoluminescence and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis
indicated that electron–hole pair separation and electron transfer
were enhanced. As a consequence, under near-infrared light radiation,
the output photocurrent of Bi2S3/Ti3C2T
x
-PLLA was increased from
0.48 to 1.43 μA compared to that of Bi2S3-PLLA. The enhanced photocurrent effectively promoted the differentiation
of rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) into functional neurons by upregulating
extracellular Ca2+ influx. Therefore, the above results
demonstrated that this work provided a new perspective for wireless
electrical stimulated nerve regeneration.