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Stretching sensors by confinement

Nature Biotechnology volume 35, page 127 (2017)Cite this article

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Making electronics more compatible with our skin is a key goal for sensor technology. Writing in Science, Zhenan Bao, Jong Won Chung and colleagues1 use nanoconfinement to generate transparent semiconductor polymer films that deform easily and retain their properties under strain. The approach is a general method for fabrication of highly stretchable semiconductor ploymers.

The challenges of making materials that meet the needs of wearable devices and their users have been approached from different angles. On the one hand, geometric designs, such as serpentine or wavy patterns and kirigami (origami but with cuts in addition to folding), have enabled stretchability by mechanical design. The drawback is that design of the resulting device and components must conform to the pattern, which imposes limitations. Alternatively, intrinsically stretchable polymers may be ideal but are hard to come by, as they tend to lack either good carrier mobility or plasticity under strain.

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References

  1. Xu, J. et al. Highly stretchable polymer semiconductor films through the nanoconfinement effect. Science 355, 59–64 (2017).

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  1. Associate Editor,

    Irene Jarchum

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  1. Irene Jarchum
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Jarchum, I. Stretching sensors by confinement. Nat Biotechnol 35, 127 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3789

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