Intrinsically Stretchable Functional Devices and Polymer Materials for Human-Machine Interface

Today is an intelligent era with the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), and novel human-machine interface (HMI) devices will greatly change people's lives. Devices based on silicon/metal materials can hardly meet the requirements of seamless integration for the long-term and stable interface, while optoelectronic polymer materials are becoming an ideal choice due to their lower Young's modulus and better intrinsic tensile properties. However, there are still challenges to achieving both efficient carrier transport and sufficient ductility in material design. This feature article discusses the innovations in devices for power supply, sensing, neural interface, display, and integrated HMI systems. It then analyzes the bottlenecks faced in terms of materials, devices, and integration. We also provide an outlook on the applications and prospects for HMI technologies. These devices include intrinsically stretchable organic solar cells (OSCs), organic thermoelectric generators (oTEGs), ion batteries, nanogenerators (NGs) and supercapacitors (SCs). They are ideal off-grid power sources for human-machine interface devices. Additionally, there are intrinsically stretchable organic photodetectors (OPDs), chemosensors, and thermosensors, which are ideal for light, chemical, and thermal sensing devices. Furthermore, there are intrinsically stretchable polymer multielectrodes arrays (MEAs) and organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), which are ideal for detecting and transmitting electrical and electrophysiological signals, respectively. Then there are integrated display devices with excellent performance, including organic light-emitting electrochemical cells (OLECs/OLEECs), organic electrochromic displays (OECDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Finaly, there are organic field effect transistors (OFETs), which are the basic components of organic integrated circuits. It shows that enhancement of the optoelectronic performance of stretchable conjugated polymers, and reliable interfaces between functional layers are the focus of future studies. [GRAPHICS] .