Biocompatible and totally disintegrable semiconducting polymer for ultrathin and ultralightweight transient electronics

TLDR

Organic electronics can be fabricated at low temperatures and may be environmentally benign, yet no totally decomposable polymer semiconductors have been reported, limiting the development of low‑cost fully disintegrable transient electronics. This work aims to create totally disintegrable and biocompatible semiconducting polymers via an imine‑based synthetic strategy. The authors synthesize these polymers using imine chemistry and fabricate ultrathin, biodegradable polymer transistors and logic circuits on ultralightweight substrates. The resulting devices exhibit high performance while remaining fully disintegrable, advancing environmentally friendly and biointegrated electronic applications.

Abstract

Significance Organic electronics, particularly polymers, can be synthesized and processed with low temperatures and, more importantly, have the potential to be environmentally benign candidates for electronic applications. However, there has been no report of totally decomposable polymer semiconductors. Their availability will enable low-cost and fully disintegrable transient electronics. We have developed an innovative concept based on imine chemistry that allows totally disintegrable and biocompatible semiconducting polymers. Using an ultrathin biodegradable substrate, we successfully fabricated polymer transistors and logic circuits that show high performance and are ultralightweight, but they can be fully disintegrable. Our work significantly advances organic materials to enable environmentally friendly and biointegrated electronic applications.