Conception of Stretchable Resistive Memory Devices Based on Nanostructure-Controlled Carbohydrate-block-Polyisoprene Block Copolymers

It is discovered that the memory-type behaviors of novel carbohydrate-block-polyisoprene (MH-b-PI) block copolymers-based devices, including write-once-read-many-times, Flash, and dynamic-random-access-memory, can be easily controlled by the self-assembly nanostructures (vertical cylinder, horizontal cylinder, and order-packed sphere), in which the MH and PI blocks, respectively, provide the charge-trapping and stretchable function. With increasing the flexible PI block length, the stretchability of the designed copolymers can be significantly improved up to 100% without forming cracks. Thus, intrinsically stretchable resistive memory devices (polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)/carbon nanotubes(CNTs)/MH-b-PI thin film/Al) using the MH-b-PI thin film as an active layer is successfully fabricated and that using the MH-b-PI12.6k under 100% strain exhibits an excellent ON/OFF current ratio of over 106 (reading at -1 V) with stable V-set around -2 V. Furthermore, the endurance characteristics can be maintained over 500 cycles upon 40% strain. This work establishes and represents a novel avenue for the design of green carbohydrate-derived and stretchable memory materials.