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FLEXIBLE ELECTRONICS

Stretching out transistors

Nature Materials volume 21, pages 495–497 (2022)Cite this article

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Bioelectronics demand stretchable devices with steady performance under deformation. By combining an amphiphilic organic semiconducting polymer with tailored film processing, highly stretchable organic electrochemical transistors are demonstrated.

Stretchable electronic devices are attracting increasing interest, especially in the field of bioelectronics, wearable electronics and soft robotics, due to their ability to conform to human skin and to withstand mechanical deformation. Organic conducting and semiconducting polymers are particularly suited for stretchable electronic application because of their inherent softness and ease of processing. The mechanical, electrical and chemical properties of organic materials can be easily tuned during synthesis, such as by introducing appropriate substituents, making them highly suitable to meet various applications. Among these are organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), which have shown great potential as ion-to-electron converters and transducers owing to their sensitivity to small changes in concentration of the species to detect.

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Fig. 1: Polymer design, honeycomb structure and device fabrication.
Fig. 2: Device stability and applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Fabio Cicoira

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  1. Fabio Cicoira
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Correspondence to Fabio Cicoira.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Cicoira, F. Stretching out transistors. Nat. Mater. 21, 495–497 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01247-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01247-9

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