Intrinsically stretchable and healable semiconducting polymer for organic transistors

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Organic Electronics
• Polymer Chemistry

Background:

• Stretchable electronics require robust, intrinsically stretchable semiconductors.
• Current approaches often involve strain accommodation or material blending.
• A need exists for semiconductors that can be processed using standard methods while maintaining flexibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and synthesize intrinsically stretchable semiconducting polymers.
• To investigate dynamic non-covalent crosslinking for enhanced molecular stretchability.
• To fabricate and characterize organic thin-film field-effect transistors (OTFTs) based on these new materials.

Main Methods:

• Incorporation of chemical moieties to promote dynamic non-covalent crosslinking in conjugated polymers.
• Fabrication of OTFTs using the synthesized stretchable semiconducting polymers.
• Performance evaluation under various strain conditions and cyclic testing.

Main Results:

• The developed polymer exhibits dynamic non-covalent crosslinking, enabling energy dissipation under strain.
• Achieved high field-effect mobility (>1 cm²/Vs) even after 100% strain cycles.
• OTFTs demonstrated high mobility (up to 1.3 cm²/Vs) and on/off ratios (>10^6).
• Device performance showed significant recovery after solvent and thermal healing.

Conclusions:

• Intrinsically stretchable semiconducting polymers with dynamic non-covalent crosslinking are feasible.
• These materials offer a promising pathway for high-performance, mechanically robust wearable electronics.
• Successful fabrication of a skin-inspired transistor highlights potential applications in wearable devices.