Water soluble flexible and wearable electronic devices: a review

Abstract

Electronic devices that are biodegradable, water soluble and flexible and are fabricated using biodegradable materials are of great importance due to their potential application in biomedical implants, personal healthcare etc. Moreover, despite the swift growth of semiconductor technologies and considering a device’s shell life of two years, the subject of electronic waste (E-waste) disposal has become a major issue. Transient electronics is a rapidly expanding field that solves the issue of E-waste by destroying the device after usage. The device disintegration can be caused by a multitude of triggering events, an example is that the device totally dissolves and/or disintegrates when submerged in water. This technology enables us to utilize electronic devices for a set amount of time before quickly destroying them, lowering E-waste significantly. This review will highlight the recent advancement in water-soluble flexible electronic devices with more focus on functional materials (water insoluble), fabrication strategies and transiency understanding with special importance on areas where these devices exhibit potential application in flexible and wearable electronic devices which includes field effect transistors, photodetectors, memristors and sensors for personal healthcare monitoring.

Recent progresses of organic photonic synaptic transistors

“…On top of that, the applications of OPSTs in artificial visual perception systems [142], neuromorphic computing [143] and logical operations are discussed in detail, while some relevant achievements in these fields in recent years are also listed. In addition, OPSTs are widely used in dynamic filtering applications, real-time detection, wearable devices [144] and other scientific fields. With recent advances in driverless cars, artificial intelligence, face-scanning payments, and the popularity of the metaverse conception, the OPSTs, as one of the core areas of these technologies, is sure to be of increasing interest to the scientific community.…”

Multiscale Transfer Printing via Shape Memory Polymer with High Adhesion and Modulus Switchability

“…Flexible electronics has been regarded as the forthcoming revolution within the electronics industry and has found extensive applications across diverse fields, such as photovoltaics, − flexible sensors, , electronic skin, − human–machine interfaces, , soft robotics, , emerging display, and so on. , Recently, many fabrication approaches for flexible electronics have been reported, including screen printing, inkjet printing, , and three-dimensional (3D) printing. ,,, Screen printing is a printing technique that involves applying ink by exerting pressure to force it through a specially designed stencil using a squeegee . Despite its advantage in mass production and compatibility with roll-to-roll technology in various industries, screen printing still faces limitations when it comes to depositing functional metallic films in the submicroscale range. , Inkjet printing offers the advantage of being maskless and capable of depositing materials on demand .…”

Multifunctional Antifreezing Organogel Polyelectrolyte for a Flexible Supercapacitor

“…With the continuous progress and development of wearable electronic technology, flexible electronic products with the characteristics of portability, wearability, collapsibility, miniature, and lightweight have been paid more and more attention. − As we know, in lots of energy storing devices, flexible solid-state supercapacitors have become one of the most hopeful flexible energy storage devices due to their large specific capacitance, rapid charging and discharging properties, wonderful stability, and excellent mechanical properties. − The rational design of electrode or electrolyte materials − and the optimization of device configuration have become the direction of development to build high-performance flexible supercapacitors (FSCs). Conductive gels with intrinsic flexibility, significant mechanical recycling, and remarkable ionic conductivity can not only be used as ideal materials for FSC electrolytes − but also have considerable applications in tissue engineering, drug delivery, water treatment, bioengineering, and many other fields.…”