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Elastic electronics based on micromesh-structured rubbery semiconductor films

Nature Electronics volume 5, pages 881–892 (2022)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 11 January 2023

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Abstract

The development of soft electronics that can be seamlessly integrated with biological tissue requires intrinsically stretchable rubbery semiconductors with high carrier mobilities. However, the scalable fabrication of rubbery semiconductors remains challenging, particularly using methods that are simple and reproducible. Here we report rubbery semiconductor thin films that are based on a lateral-phase-separation-induced micromesh. A two-polymer blend solution is spin coated on a substrate and forms micromesh morphologies via lateral phase separation, consisting of a continuous organic semiconductor-rich phase and an isolated elastomer-rich phase. The micromesh-structured rubbery semiconductors simultaneously provide efficient charge transport and mechanical stretchability, and by using different polymer blends, we create both p-type and n-type rubbery semiconductor films. The films are used to construct rubbery transistors, complementary inverters and bilayer heterojunction photodetectors that can function even under applied strains of up to 50%. We also create an electronic patch that has a transistor active matrix fully made of rubbery materials and can be used to map the biopotentials of a rat heart.

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Fig. 1: Fabrication of LPSM rubbery semiconductor.
Fig. 2: Rubbery transistor based on LPSM-1 film.
Fig. 3: Rubbery transistor array and inverter based on LPSM-1 film.
Fig. 4: n- and p-type LPSM semiconductors.
Fig. 5: Rubbery CT inverter and photodetector.
Fig. 6: Epicardial electrophysiological mapping in vivo on rat heart by the fully rubbery transistor active matrix.

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The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

C.Y. would like to acknowledge the National Science Foundation grants of CAREER (1554499), EFRI (1935291) and CPS (1931893); National Institute Health grant (R21EB026175); and the Office of Naval Research grant (N00014-18-1-2338) under the Young Investigator Program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Advanced Materials, and School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

    Ying-Shi Guan

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Ying-Shi Guan, Xu Wang & Cunjiang Yu

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Faheem Ershad & Cunjiang Yu

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Faheem Ershad & Cunjiang Yu

  5. Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Zhoulyu Rao, Yuntao Lu & Cunjiang Yu

  6. Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Zhoulyu Rao, Yuntao Lu & Cunjiang Yu

  7. Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Zhifan Ke & Jianguo Mei

  8. Regenerative Medicine Research, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, TX, USA

    Ernesto Curty da Costa, Peter Vanderslice & Camila Hochman-Mendez

  9. Molecular Cardiology Research Laboratory, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, TX, USA

    Qian Xiang

  10. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Materials Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Cunjiang Yu

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  1. Ying-Shi Guan
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Contributions

Y.-S.G. and C.Y. conceived the concept and designed the work. Y.-S.G., F.E., Z.R., Z.K., E.C.C., Q.X., Y.L. and X.W. performed the experiment. Y.-S.G., F.E. and E.C.C. analysed the experimental data. Y.-S.G., F.E. and C.Y. wrote the manuscript. All the authors commented and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cunjiang Yu.

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Nature Electronics thanks Yun-Hi Kim, Longzhen Qiu and Xuanhe Zhao for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–3, Figs. 1–25 and Tables 1–3.

Supplementary Video 1

Heat maps at 5 ms increments to better illustrate the cardiac action potential propagation over time (sinus rhythm).

Supplementary Video 2

Heat maps at 5 ms increments to better illustrate the cardiac action potential propagation over time (under pacing).

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Guan, YS., Ershad, F., Rao, Z. et al. Elastic electronics based on micromesh-structured rubbery semiconductor films. Nat Electron 5, 881–892 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00874-z

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