N-type semiconducting hydrogel
Peiyun Li, Wenxi Sun, Jiu‐Long Li, Jupeng Chen, X. Wang, Zi Mei, Guan-Yu Jin, Yuqiu Lei, Ruiyun Xin, Mo Yang, Jingcao Xu, Xiran Pan, Cheng Song, Xinyu Deng, Xun Lei, Kai Liu, Xiu Wang, Yuting Zheng, Jia Zhu, Shixian Lv, Zhi Zhang, Xiaochuan Dai, Ting Lei
Abstract
Hydrogels are an attractive category of biointerfacing materials with adjustable mechanical properties, diverse biochemical functions, and good ionic conductivity. Despite these advantages, their application in electronics has been restricted because of their lack of semiconducting properties, and they have traditionally only served as insulators or conductors. We developed single- and multiple-network hydrogels based on a water-soluble n-type semiconducting polymer, endowing conventional hydrogels with semiconducting capabilities. These hydrogels show good electron mobilities and high on/off ratios, enabling the fabrication of complementary logic circuits and signal amplifiers with low power consumption and high gains. We demonstrate that hydrogel electronics with good bioadhesive and biocompatible interface can sense and amplify electrophysiological signals with enhanced signal-to-noise ratios.