Bending sensor using ionic liquid crystal elastomers as solid electrolyte of organic electrochemical transistors

ABSTRACT

Organic Electrochemical Transistors (OECTs) have the potential to enable fully flexible, low-cost electronics. Here, we demonstrate that OECTs can be combined with ionic liquid crystal elastomers (iLCEs) to realise highly sensitive bending sensors. The transfer curve of the iLCE-based OECT shows opposite variation with upward and downward bending representing a directional sensitive strain sensor. The change in the drain current is 4 orders of magnitude larger than the flexo-ionic current. This high sensitivity is due to the OECT that amplifies the flexo-ionic current. iLCE-based OECTs therefore present a new class of curvature sensors that may find applications in soft robotics and biosensing.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Time dependence of the drain (blue dots) and gate (red squares) in response to periodic bending of an iLCE-OECT.

KEYWORDS:

• Organic electrochemical transistor
• ionic elastomer
• liquid crystal
• bending sensor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by National Science Foundation [Grant ECCS 1750011].