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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.
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.
In their current study, the researchers demonstrate how this conflicting objectives can be overcome through the targeted transfer of plasticizers from the substrate into the PEDOT:PSS polymer film. Their approach takes advantage of a transfer-printing process that enables the rapid, reliable, and straight forward transfer of conductive polymer films onto stretchable, biodegradable substrates. As a conducting polymer the particularly promising material PEDOT:PSS is used, which combines transparency, flexibility, and biocompatibility. “The plasticizers contained in the substrates diffuse into the conductive polymer, thereby improving both the electrical performance and the mechanical properties.”, explains Carla Volkert, doctoral student and first author of the study. The approach furthermore enables fundamental insights into the behavior of stretchable electronic materials. Combining various analytical methods—including electrical characterization, microscopic imaging, atomic force microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy—the researchers were able to gain new insights into the morphological and electronic changes of PEDOT:PSS under strain. Particularly noteworthy is the observed chain alignment of the polymer chains, which results in increased electrical conductivity under mechanical stress. Our method simultaneously improves the stretchability and electrical conductivity of PEDOT:PSS – an important step towards on-skin biosensors, explains Ulrike Kraft, head of the Organic Bioelectronics Research Group.
This work hence not only represents an important contribution to the fundamental understanding of soft, stretchable conductive materials, but also opens up new perspectives for the development of innovative technologies – from flexible electrodes for electrocardiograms (ECGs) to stretchable biosensors on the skin that can detect and monitor analytes such as stress hormones in sweat. The next aim will be the application of this new approach for the fabrication and characterization of stretchable biosensors.
The research results have recently been published in the journal Advanced Science.
Dr. Ulrike Kraft
kraftu@mpip-mainz.mpg.de
Volkert, C.; Brzezinski, M.; Argudo, P. G.; Colucci, R.; Parekh, S. H.; Parekh, S. H.; Besenius, P.; Michels, J. J.; Kraft, U.: Enhanced Electrical Performance and Stretchability by Plasticizer‐Facilitated PEDOT:PSS Self‐Alignment. Advanced Science, 2502853 (2025)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202502853
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have recently shown that the targeted d ...
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