title: Intrinsically stretchable and healable semiconducting polymer for organic transistors.
abstract: Thin-film field-effect transistors are essential elements of stretchable electronic devices for wearable electronics. All of the materials and components of such transistors need to be stretchable and mechanically robust. Although there has been recent progress towards stretchable conductors, the realization of stretchable semiconductors has focused mainly on strain-accommodating engineering of materials, or blending of nanofibres or nanowires into elastomers. An alternative approach relies on using semiconductors that are intrinsically stretchable, so that they can be fabricated using standard processing methods. Molecular stretchability can be enhanced when conjugated polymers, containing modified side-chains and segmented backbones, are infused with more flexible molecular building blocks. Here we present a design concept for stretchable semiconducting polymers, which involves introducing chemical moieties to promote dynamic non-covalent crosslinking of the conjugated polymers. These non-covalent crosslinking moieties are able to undergo an energy dissipation mechanism through breakage of bonds when strain is applied, while retaining high charge transport abilities. As a result, our polymer is able to recover its high field-effect mobility performance (more than 1 square centimetre per volt per second) even after a hundred cycles at 100 per cent applied strain. Organic thin-film field-effect transistors fabricated from these materials exhibited mobility as high as 1.3 square centimetres per volt per second and a high on/off current ratio exceeding a million. The field-effect mobility remained as high as 1.12 square centimetres per volt per second at 100 per cent strain along the direction perpendicular to the strain. The field-effect mobility of damaged devices can be almost fully recovered after a solvent and thermal healing treatment. Finally, we successfully fabricated a skin-inspired stretchable organic transistor operating under deformations that might be expected in a wearable device.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Jin Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rondeau-Gagné
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Yu-Cheng
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chortos
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lissel
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Ging-Ji Nathan
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Bob C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Tadanori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurosawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.|Corporate Research and Development, Performance Materials Technology Center, Asahi Kasei Corporation, 2-1 Samejima, Fuji, Shizuoka 416-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Katsumata
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Chenxin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.|Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaodan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Won-Gyu
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Yeongin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.|Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do 443-803, South Korea.
authors.forename: Jong Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey B-H
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Tok
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5025, USA.
authors.forename: Zhenan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bao
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D032701:Biomimetics; D006801:Humans; D018583:Pliability; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012867:Skin; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014173:Transistors, Electronic; D014945:Wound Healing
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers