Kirigami-Inspired Stretchable Conjugated Electronics

pi-Conjugated polymers have drawn broad interest in flexible electronics due to their solution processability, light weight, and a combination of conducting and light-emitting properties. However, achieving mechanical endurance and stretchability in freestanding conjugated polymers is still difficult. Surface-assembly-induced light-emitting polymer nanosheets with prodigious mechanical strength and charge transport are reported. Transferring freestanding polymer films onto various templates with conformal contact results in electrical and optical strain sensors with a gauge factor of approximate to 29. Subsequent geometric engineering into kirigami structures of the polymer sheets further extends the strain accommodations 20-fold without compromising electric conductivity or fluorescence properties. These as-prepared semiconducting polymers represent a possible new material for emerging stretchable electronics.