Modular wearable optoelectronic system using photoactive nanomembranes

Abstract

Ultrathin, flexible, cost-effective, and high-performance optoelectronic materials, such as halide perovskites and two-dimensional (2D) nanomembranes, have recently attracted significant attention in the field of wearable bio-integrated systems owing to their exceptional theoretical performance (e.g., high mechanical stability without significant degradation of electrical and optical properties) that may potentially surpass those of conventional rigid/brittle/bulky semiconductors under the condition of external mechanical stress applied. Despite the progress made at the individual unit level, the currently used fabrication/integration process does not satisfy the requirements established for personalized wearable optoelectronic systems because no reconfigurable heterogenous integration of various photoactive materials into a monolithic soft skin-like platform has been performed yet. Herein, we report a modular wearable optoelectronic system that exhibits a unique combination of energy harvesting, sensing, and display capabilities based on two different types of photoactive nanomembranes (halide perovskites and 2D semiconducting MoS2 nanosheets) even under on-skin deformation. To ensure that this system is reconfigurable both physically and electrically, we added a water-resistant self-healing stretchable polymer and conducting composite films to its encapsulation/substrate layers and interconnects, respectively. The spontaneous modularity that is inherent in self-healing materials enabled the formation of an integrated optoelectronic system with the following functional units. i) Photovoltaic and photoemissive devices containing perovskite-based nanomembranes were used as efficient power supplies and for immediate visualization, respectively. ii) A MoS2 nanosheet-based photosensitive component quantitatively distinguished various brightness conditions. iii) An integrated modular system was capable of detecting either tactile stimuli or various motions. The proposed integration strategy can be potentially utilized for realizing high-performance on-demand/user-defined wearable optoelectronic systems.