Thin-film field-effect transistor is a fundamental component behind various mordern electronics. The development of stretchable electronics poses fundamental challenges in developing new electronic materials for stretchable thin-film transistors that are mechanically compliant and solution processable. Here we report the fabrication of transparent thin-film transistors that behave like an elastomer film. The entire fabrication is carried out by solution-based techniques, and the resulting devices exhibit a mobility of ∼30 cm2 V−1 s−1, on/off ratio of 103–104, switching current >100 μA, transconductance >50 μS and relative low operating voltages. The devices can be stretched by up to 50% strain and subjected to 500 cycles of repeated stretching to 20% strain without significant loss in electrical property. The thin-film transistors are also used to drive organic light-emitting diodes. The approach and results represent an important progress toward the development of stretchable active-matrix displays.

Stretchable light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) and electroluminescent capacitors have been reported to potentially bring new opportunities to wearable electronics; however, these devices lack in efficiency and/or stretchability. Here, a stretchable organometal‐halide‐perovskite quantum‐dot LED with both high efficiency and mechanical compliancy is demonstrated. The hybrid device employs an ultrathin (<3 µm) LED structure conformed on a surface‐wrinkled elastomer substrate. Its luminescent efficiency is up to 9.2 cd A−1, which is 70% higher than a control diode fabricated on the rigid indium tin oxide/glass substrate. Mechanical deformations up to 50% tensile strain do not induce significant loss of the electroluminescent property. The device can survive 1000 stretch–release cycles of 20% tensile strain with small fluctuations in electroluminescent performance.

The development of intrinsically stretchable electronics poses great challenges in synthesizing elastomeric conductors, semiconductors and dielectric materials.

Highly efficient organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on multiple layers of vapor evaporated small molecules, indium tin oxide transparent electrode, and glass substrate have been extensively investigated and are being commercialized. The light extraction from the exciton radiative decay is limited to less than 30% due to plasmonic quenching on the metallic cathode and the waveguide in the multi-layer sandwich structure. Here we report a flexible nanocomposite electrode comprising single-walled carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires stacked and embedded in the surface of a polymer substrate. Nanoparticles of barium strontium titanate are dispersed within the substrate to enhance light extraction efficiency. Green polymer OLED (PLEDs) fabricated on the nanocomposite electrode exhibit a maximum current efficiency of 118 cd/A at 10,000 cd/m2 with the calculated external quantum efficiency being 38.9%. The efficiencies of white PLEDs are 46.7 cd/A and 30.5%, respectively. The devices can be bent to 3 mm radius repeatedly without significant loss of electroluminescent performance. The nanocomposite electrode could pave the way to high-efficiency flexible OLEDs with simplified device structure and low fabrication cost.

Highly flexible and efficient CH3NH3PbBr3 quantum dot based light-emitting diodes were developed on a silver nanowire–polymer composite electrode.

A light-emitting touch-responsive device (LETD) for instantaneous visualization of pressure mapping is reported. The LETD integrates an organometal halide perovskite polymer composite emissive layer and a flexible silver nanowire polyurethane composite transparent electrode. The composite emissive layer contains methylammonium lead bromide nanocrystals uniformly dispersed in a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) matrix and emits an intense green luminescence that peaks at 529 nm. The PEO matrix promotes the formation of small perovskite grains (∼20 nm) and a pinhole-free composite film with surface roughness of only 2.96 nm. The composite transparent electrode is separated from the emissive layer with a 100 μm thick spacer. When a local pressure is applied, a Schottky contact is formed instantaneously between the metal and the emissive layer, and electroluminescence is produced at voltages as low as 2.5 V and reaches 1030 cd/m at 6 V. The transparent LETD has approximately 68% transparency. It can be bent to a 6 mm radius when polyethylene terephthalate is used as the substrate. The perovskite LETD has fast response and can be pixelated to offer potential applications in robotics, motion detection, fingerprint devices, and interactive wallpapers.

An efficient white polymer light-emitting electrochemical cell has been fabricated with a thin-film sandwich architecture of glass/indium tin oxide/electroluminescent layer/aluminum.

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