Creating flexible, biocompatible, and electrically conductive materials for wearable biosensors is a challenging task. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have developed an innovative method to enhance the properties of the conductive polymer PEDOT:PSS, making it more stretchable and electrically conductive.
When aiming for stretchable, health-monitoring, skin-like sensor sheets, materials with demanding properties are required: they need to be flexible, biocompatible, and electrically conductive at the same time.
A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research is tackling this complex task. In a recent study, the scientists present an innovative approach: using a transfer-printing process, the conductive polymer PEDOT:PSS is modified via plasticizers that diffuse from the substrate into the polymer film. This significantly improves both the electrical conductivity and the stretchability of the material.
The research results have been published in the journal Advanced Science.
A deformable patch that measures the heart rate or detects biomarkers in the sweat and feels as soft and flexible as one’s own skin—such visions demand new material developments.
To realize ideas like these, as well as wearable and skin-like electronics in general, materials that possess both high electrical conductivity and mechanical stretchability are required.
A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research led by Dr. Ulrike Kraft is currently working on this challenge. However, stretchability and electrical conductivity are often contradictory, which complicates the development of suitable materials, explains Ulrike Kraft, head of the Organic Bioelectronics Research Group.
