Aiman Rahmanudin

Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) are pivotal for next-generation organic electronics and bioelectronics. However, conventional fabrication methods such as electrochemical and chemical polymerization, and spin-coating often involve complex, multi-step processes, specialized equipment, time-consuming patterning, and significant energy input. Here, we overcome these limitations by introducing a self-driven polymerization method, in which an OMIEC precursor molecule undergoes direct oxidation on a metal electrode. This simple, equipment-free approach enables rapid, in situ formation of conducting polymer coatings on a range of noble metal surfaces, including challenging architectures. This method enables one-step formation of high-performance organic electrochemical transistors with simultaneous glucose oxidase integration, directly producing a functional glucose biosensor and highlighting its potential for multifunctional devices. Importantly, we validate the performance of these high-capacitance coatings in a soft multielectrode array cuff for sciatic nerve interfacing, achieving selective electrical stimulation and high-fidelity in vivo recording. The device supports motor-selective stimulation, ultra-low stimulation saturation thresholds (25–30 µA), and reliable detection of sensory compound action potentials across multiple plantar hind paw regions. Overall, this fast, scalable, and aqueous-based approach provides a high-throughput route for fabricating advanced bioelectronic devices.

This perspective explores the intersection between materials research and environmental assessment during the early-stage development of next-generation wearables, encompassing flexible, stretchable, soft, transient, and printed electronics.

High-capacity stretchable batteries are crucial for next-generation wearables to enable long-term operation and mechanical conformability with the human user. In existing stretchable battery designs, increasing the active material to yield higher capacity often leads to thicker and stiffer solid electrodes with poor mechanical properties. Here, we present a concept that transfers the physical property of a battery electrode from a conventional solid into a fluid state. The mechanical and electrochemical properties of the electrode rely on the viscosity of fluids rather than Young’s modulus of solids. Fluids conform easily into any shape with minimal force, making them intrinsically deformable. This decouples the electrochemical and mechanical property of the redox-active electrofluid, leading to higher capacities with more active material loading without stiffening the cell. The cell showed excellent capacity retention over 500 charge-discharge cycles and mechanical robustness up to 100% strain. Our work provides a technological solution for stretchable batteries that balances capacity and mechanical performance.

Materials that provide dynamically tunable infrared (IR) response are important for many applications, including active camouflage and thermal management. However, current IR-tunable systems often exhibit limitations in mechanical properties or practicality of their tuning modalities, or require complex and costly fabrication methods. An additional challenge relates to providing compatibility between different spectral channels, such as allowing an object to be reversibly concealed in the IR without making it appear in the visible range. Here, we demonstrate that conducting polymer-cellulose papers, fabricated through a simple and cheap approach, can overcome such challenges. The papers exhibit IR properties that can be electrochemically tuned with large modulation (absolute emissivity modulation of 0.4) while maintaining largely constant response in the visible range. Owing to high ionic and electrical conductivity, the tuning of the top surface can be performed electrochemically from the other side of the paper even at tens of micrometer thicknesses, removing the need for overlaying electrode and electrolyte in the optical beam path. These features enabled a series of electrically tunable IR devices, where we focus on demonstrating dynamic radiative coolers, thermal camouflage, anti-counterfeiting tags, and grayscale IR displays. The conducting polymer-cellulose papers are sustainable, cheap, flexible and mechanically robust, providing a versatile materials platform for active and adaptive IR optoelectronic devices.

A stretchable battery design that uses sustainable plant-based materials and enables high electrochemical and mechanical performance and is biodegradable at the end-of-life.

A plant-based, stretchable organic battery was developed by formulating a quaternary biocomposite electrode that possesses high electrical and ionic conductivities, charge storage capacity of 6.8 mA h cm ⁻³ , and tensile stretchability over 300%.

Stretchable battery technology still faces several challenges to progress the development of next-generation wearables. This perspective will evaluate current strategies and provide a discussion on possible avenues for future research.

We present a quaterthiophene and sexithiophene that can reversibly change their effective π‐conjugation length through photoexcitation. The reported compounds make use of light‐responsive molecular actuators consisting of an azobenzene attached to a bithiophene unit by both direct and linker‐assisted bonding. Upon exposure to 350 nm light, the azobenzene undergoes trans‐to‐cis isomerization, thus mechanically inducing the oligothiophene to assume a planar conformation (extended π‐conjugation). Exposure to 254 nm wavelength promotes azobenzene cis‐to‐trans isomerization, forcing the thiophenic backbones to twist out of planarity (confined π‐conjugation). Twisted conformations are also reached by cis‐to‐trans thermal relaxation at a rate that increases proportionally with the conjugation length of the oligothiophene moiety. The molecular conformations of quaterthiophene and sexithiophene were characterized by using steady‐state UV‐vis spectroscopy, X‐ray crystallography and quantum‐chemical modeling. Finally, we tested the proposed light‐responsive oligothiophenes in field‐effect transistors to probe the photo‐induced tuning of their electronic properties.

A modular approach to underexplored, unsymmetrical [1]benzothieno[3,2- b ][1]benzothiophene (BTBT) scaffolds, combining a transition-metal free Pummerer CH–CH-type cross-coupling and a Newman–Kwart reaction, delivers a library of BTBT materials.