Rapid prototyping of heterostructured organic microelectronics using wax printing, filtration, and transfer

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. C, Materials for optical and electronic devices Vol. 9; no. 41; pp. 14596 - 1465
• Main Authors: Ouyang, Liangqi, Buchmann, Sebastian, Benselfelt, Tobias, Musumeci, Chiara, Wang, Zhen, Khaliliazar, Shirin, Tian, Weiqian, Li, Hailong, Herland, Anna, Hamedi, Mahiar M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 2021; The Royal Society of Chemistry
• Subjects: Acidification; Chemistry; Conducting polymers; Dispersions; Filtration; Heterostructures; Hydrogels; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Membranes; Micropatterning; Rapid prototyping; Transistors; Waxes
• ISSN: 2050-7526; 2050-7534; 2050-7534
• DOI: 10.1039/d1tc03599a

Conducting polymers are the natural choice for soft electronics. However, the main challenge is to pattern conducting polymers using a simple and rapid method to manufacture advanced devices. Filtration of conducting particle dispersions using a patterned membrane is a promising method. Here, we show the rapid prototyping of various micropatterned organic electronic heterostructures of PEDOT:PSS by inducing the formation of microscopic hydrogels, which are then filtered through membranes containing printed hydrophobic wax micropatterns. The hydrogels are retained on the un-patterned, hydrophilic regions, forming micropatterns, achieving a resolution reaching 100 μm. We further solve the problem of forming stacked devices by transferring the acidified PEDOT:PSS micropattern using the adhesive tape transfer method to form vertical heterostructures with other micropatterned electronic colloids such as CNTs, which are patterned using a similar technique. We demonstrate a number of different heterostructure devices including micro supercapacitors and organic electrochemical transistors and also demonstrate the use of acidified PEDOT:PSS microstructures in cell cultures to enable bioelectronics. This work presents a simple yet powerful method to micropattern electronic multilayer heterostructures of conducting polymers and nanomaterials. Using wax printing, filtration and tape transfer, we rapidly prototype advanced heterostructure devices.