Photo Credit: Stanford UniversityAnyone who’s stuffed a smart phone in their back pocket would appreciate the convenience of electronic devices that could bend. Flexible electronics could spawn new products: clothing wired to cool or heat, reading tablets that could fold like newspaper, and so on.
Alas, electronic components such as chips, displays and wires are generally made from metals and inorganic semiconductors — materials with physical properties that make them fairly stiff and brittle.
In the quest for flexibility many researchers have been experimenting with semiconductors made from plastics or, more accurately polymers, which bend and stretch readily enough.
“But at the molecular level polymers look like a bowl of spaghetti,” says Stanford chemical engineering professor Andrew Spakowitz, adding: “Those non-uniform structures have important implications for the conductive properties of polymeric semiconductors.” Read More
