High-Transconductance, Highly Elastic, Durable and Recyclable All-Polymer Electrochemical Transistors with 3D Micro-Engineered Interfaces

Abstract

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have emerged as versatile platforms for broad applications spanning from flexible and wearable integrated circuits to biomedical monitoring to neuromorphic computing. A variety of materials and tailored micro/nanostructures have recently been developed to realized stretchable OECTs, however, a solid-state OECT with high elasticity has not been demonstrated to date. Herein, we present a general platform developed for the facile generation of highly elastic all-polymer OECTs with high transconductance (up to 12.7 mS), long-term mechanical and environmental durability, and sustainability. Rapid prototyping of these devices was achieved simply by transfer printing lithium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide doped poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS/LiTFSI) microstructures onto a resilient gelatin-based gel electrolyte, in which both depletion-mode and enhancement-mode OECTs were produced using various active channels. Remarkably, the elaborate 3D architectures of the PEDOT:PSS were engineered, and an imprinted 3D-microstructured channel/electrolyte interface combined with wrinkled electrodes provided performance that was retained (> 70%) through biaxial stretching of 100% strain and after 1000 repeated cycles of 80% strain. Furthermore, the anti-drying and degradable gelatin and the self-crosslinked PEDOT:PSS/LiTFSI jointly enabled stability during > 4 months of storage and on-demand disposal and recycling. This work thus represents a straightforward approach towards high-performance stretchable organic electronics for wearable/implantable/neuromorphic/sustainable applications.