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Biological compounds often provide clues to advance material designs. Replicating their molecular structure and functional motifs in artificial materials offers a blueprint for unprecedented functionalities. Here, we report a flexible biomimetic thermal sensing (BTS) polymer that is designed to emulate the ion transport dynamics of a plant cell wall component, pectin. Using a simple yet versatile synthetic procedure, we engineer the physicochemical properties of the polymer by inserting elastic fragments in a block copolymer architecture, making it flexible and stretchable. The thermal response of our flexible polymer outperforms current state-of-the-art temperature sensing materials, including vanadium oxide, by up to two orders of magnitude. Thermal sensors fabricated from these composites exhibit a sensitivity that exceeds 10 mK and operate stably between 15° and 55°C, even under repeated mechanical deformations. We demonstrate the use of our flexible BTS polymer in two-dimensional arrays for spatiotemporal temperature mapping and broadband infrared photodetection. more...

A skin-like electronic health care patch is demonstrated with a stretchable organic light-emitting diode display and photodiode., Skin-like health care patches (SHPs) are next-generation health care gadgets that will enable seamless monitoring of biological signals in daily life. Skin-conformable sensors and a stretchable display are critical for the development of standalone SHPs that provide real-time information while alleviating privacy concerns related to wireless data transmission. However, the production of stretchable wearable displays with sufficient pixels to display this information remains challenging. Here, we report a standalone organic SHP that provides real-time heart rate information. The 15-μm-thick SHP comprises a stretchable organic light-emitting diode display and stretchable organic photoplethysmography (PPG) heart rate sensor on all-elastomer substrate and operates stably under 30% strain using a combination of stress relief layers and deformable micro-cracked interconnects that reduce the mechanical stress on the active optoelectronic components. This approach provides a rational strategy for high-resolution stretchable displays, enabling the production of ideal platforms for next-generation wearable health care electronics. more...