Structure-mechanical property of Stretchable Organic Ultra-thin Film for Electronic Applications

Flexible electronics have gained significant attention due to its potential of achieving large area fabrication and a wide range of application in wearable and implantable devices. A blended system consists of conjugated polymer/elastomer serving as flexible, lightweight, solution-processable, cost-effective, structure tailorable active layer plays a pivotal role in the modern flexible electronics development. To systematically investigate the morphology of the blend system, the different blend ratio of conjugated polymer/elastomer systems were studied by resonant soft x-ray scattering (RSoXs) and correlated to the temperature controlled mechanical tester. We used a pseudo-free standing tensile tester to measure the mechanic property of the ultra-thin films with a thickness of 10 ~ 200nm, which otherwise cannot be obtained using the traditional tensile tester. The full stress-strain curve and the related mechanical property was measured and discussed for the film being floated on water. In the meantime, microstructure morphology, as one of the key variables of electronics performance, was investigated by RSoXs technique to establish the relationship between different blend ratio and phase separation, domain size, and domain spacing in each composite.