Title: Stretchable Redox‐Active Semiconducting Polymers for High‐Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors

Abstract

Abstract Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) represent an emerging device platform for next‐generation bioelectronics owing to the uniquely high amplification and sensitivity to biological signals. For achieving seamless tissue–electronics interfaces for accurate signal acquisition, skin‐like softness and stretchability are essential requirements, but they have not yet been imparted onto high‐performance OECTs, largely due to the lack of stretchable redox‐active semiconducting polymers. Here, a stretchable semiconductor is reported for OECT devices, namely poly(2‐(3,3′‐bis(2‐(2‐(2‐methoxyethoxy)ethoxy)ethoxy)‐[2,2′‐bithiophen]‐5)yl thiophene) (p(g2T‐T)), which gives exceptional stretchability over 200% strain and 5000 repeated stretching cycles, together with OECT performance on par with the state‐of‐the‐art. Validated by systematic characterizations and comparisons of different polymers, the key design features of this polymer that enable the combination of high stretchability and high OECT performance are a nonlinear backbone architecture, a moderate side‐chain density, and a sufficiently high molecular weight. Using this highly stretchable polymer semiconductor, an intrinsically stretchable OECT is fabricated with high normalized transconductance (≈223 S cm ⁻¹ ) and biaxial stretchability up to 100% strain. Furthermore, on‐skin electrocardiogram (ECG) recording is demonstrated, which combines built‐in amplification and unprecedented skin conformability.

Authors:

Dai, Yahao ^[1]; Dai, Shilei ^[1]; Li, Nan ^[1]; Li, Yang ^[1]; Moser, Maximilian ^[2]; Strzalka, Joseph ^[3]; Prominski, Aleksander ^[4]; Liu, Youdi ^[1]; Zhang, Qingteng ^[3]; Li, Songsong ^[1]; Hu, Huawei ^[1]; Liu, Wei ^[1]; Chatterji, Shivani ^[1]; Cheng, Ping ^[1]; Tian, Bozhi ^[4]; McCulloch, Iain ^[5]; Xu, Jie ^[6]; Wang, Sihong  ^[7]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering The University of Chicago Chicago IL 60637 USA
2. Department of Chemistry University of Oxford Oxford OX1 3TA UK
3. X‐Ray Science Division Argonne National Laboratory Lemont IL 60439 USA
4. Department of Chemistry University of Chicago Chicago IL 60637 USA
5. Department of Chemistry University of Oxford Oxford OX1 3TA UK, KAUST Solar Center (KSC) King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Thuwal 23955–6900 Saudi Arabia
6. Nanoscience and Technology Division Argonne National Laboratory Lemont IL 60439 USA
7. Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering The University of Chicago Chicago IL 60637 USA, Nanoscience and Technology Division Argonne National Laboratory Lemont IL 60439 USA

Publication Date:

Mon May 02 00:00:00 EDT 2022

Research Org.:

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR)

OSTI Identifier:

1865982

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1865984; OSTI ID: 1872958

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-06CH11357; N00014-21-1-2266

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Advanced Materials

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Advanced Materials Journal Volume: 34 Journal Issue: 23; Journal ID: ISSN 0935-9648

Publisher:

Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)

Country of Publication:

Germany

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; organic electrochemical transistors; redox-active polymer semiconductors; stretchable electronics