Ultrahigh‐Performance Optoelectronic Skin Based on Intrinsically Stretchable Perovskite‐Polymer Heterojunction Transistors

TLDR

Optoelectronic skin is a leading technology for wearable health monitoring, soft robotics, and artificial retinas, yet the difficulty of producing stretchable photosensitive polymers and the high crystallinity of perovskites limits device development. The authors aim to enable low‑cost, high‑performance optoelectronic skins by developing a surface‑energy‑induced self‑assembly method that produces easily transferable, worm‑like perovskite quantum‑dot films. Using this self‑assembly, they fabricate intrinsically stretchable phototransistors by forming a heterojunction between the worm‑like PQD films and hybrid polymer semiconductors, yielding flexible, transferable devices. The resulting ISTPTs exhibit ultra‑sensitive X‑ray detection (79 nGy s⁻¹, 560× better than commercial chest X‑ray) and high UV photosensitivity (5 × 10⁶, 50 nW cm⁻²), while also demonstrating high strain tolerance, specificity, optical transparency, and skin conformability.

Abstract

The optoelectronic skin is acknowledged as the world's current cutting-edge technology in the fields of wearable healthcare monitoring, soft robotics, artificial retinas, and so on. However, the difficulty in preparing stretchable photosensitive polymers and the high-crystallization nature of most reported photosensitive materials (such as perovskites) severely restrict the development of skin-like optoelectronic devices. Herein, a surface energy-induced self-assembly methodology is proposed to form easily transferrable and flexible perovskite quantum dot (PQD) films with a worm-like morphology. Furthermore, intrinsically stretchable phototransistors (ISTPTs) are fabricated based on a stretchable photosensitive layer heterojunction consisting of worm-like PQD films and hybrid polymer semiconductors. The obtained ISTPTs display highly sensitive response to high-energy photons of X-ray (with a detection limit of 79 nGy s-1 , that is 560 times lower than commercial medical chest X-ray diagnosis) and ultraviolet (with photosensitivity of 5 × 106 and detectable light intensity of 50 nW cm-2 among the highest performance of reported photodetectors). In addition, these ISTPTs demonstrate desirable e-skin characteristics with high strain tolerance, high sensing specificity, high optical transparency, and good skin conformability. The surface energy-induced self-assembly methodology for the preparation of ISTPTs is a critical demonstration to enable low-cost and high-performance optoelectronic skins.