Journal
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
Volume 100, Issue 9, Pages -Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.3688491
Keywords
bioelectric phenomena; biomedical materials; electrical conductivity; macromolecules; molecular biophysics; photoconducting materials; skin
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council [DP0879944, DP0877875]
- Australian Postgraduate Award
- ARC QEII [DP0877875]
- Queensland Smart State Senior Fellowship
- Australian Research Council [DP0877875, DP0879944] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
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The skin pigment melanin is one of a few bio-macromolecules that display electrical and photo-conductivity in the solid-state. A model for melanin charge transport based on amorphous semiconductivity has been widely accepted for 40 years. In this letter, we show that a central pillar in support of this hypothesis, namely experimental agreement with a hydrated dielectric model, is an artefact related to measurement geometry and non-equilibrium behaviour. Our results cast significant doubt on the validity of the amorphous semiconductor model and are a reminder of the difficulties of electrical measurements on low conductivity, disordered organic materials. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3688491]
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