Breathable and Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistors with Laminated Porous Structures for Glucose Sensing

Abstract

Dynamic glucose monitoring is important to reduce the risk of metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Wearable biosensors based on organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have been developed due to their excellent signal amplification capabilities and biocompatibility. However, traditional wearable biosensors are fabricated on flat substrates with limited gas permeability, resulting in the inefficient evaporation of sweat, reduced wear comfort, and increased risk of inflammation. Here, we proposed breathable OECT-based glucose sensors by designing a porous structure to realize optimal breathable and stretchable properties. The gas permeability of the device and the relationship between electrical properties under different tensile strains were carefully investigated. The OECTs exhibit exceptional electrical properties (gm ~1.51 mS and Ion ~0.37 mA) and can retain up to about 44% of their initial performance even at 30% stretching. Furthermore, obvious responses to glucose have been demonstrated in a wide range of concentrations (10−7–10−4 M) even under 30% strain, where the normalized response to 10−4 M is 26% and 21% for the pristine sensor and under 30% strain, respectively. This work offers a new strategy for developing advanced breathable and wearable bioelectronics.

Keywords

• porous structure
• stretchable and breathable electronics
• organic electrochemical transistors
• glucose sensors