Hydrogel-Enabled Transfer-Printing of Conducting Polymer Films for Soft Organic Bioelectronics

Abstract

© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim The use of conducting polymers such as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) for the development of soft organic bioelectronic devices, such as organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), is rapidly increasing. However, directly manipulating conducting polymer thin films on soft substrates remains challenging, which hinders the development of conformable organic bioelectronic devices. A facile transfer-printing of conducting polymer thin films from conventional rigid substrates to flexible substrates offers an alternative solution. In this work, it is reported that PEDOT:PSS thin films on glass substrates, once mixed with surfactants, can be delaminated with hydrogels and thereafter be transferred to soft substrates without any further treatments. The proposed method allows easy, fast, and reliable transferring of patterned PEDOT:PSS thin films from glass substrates onto various soft substrates, facilitating their application in soft organic bioelectronics. By taking advantage of this method, skin-attachable tattoo-OECTs are demonstrated, relevant for conformable, imperceptible, and wearable organic biosensing.