Organic electrochemical transistor in wearable bioelectronics: Profiles, applications, and integration

Wearable bioelectronics attracts great interest as an important medium to bridge electronics and biological systems. As an emerging part of wearable electronics, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) offer numerous benefits for biological sensing, such as intrinsic flexibility, ion-to-electron conversion property, low working voltage (< 1 V), and large transconductance. The superiorities of OECTs have been successfully applied in constructing plenty of biosensors. More importantly, significant progress has been made in OECT integration, opening up new possibilities for multifunctional and wearable bioelectronic systems. This review will first discuss the profiles of OECT, including its working mechanism, advantages, and applications. Next, the structure engineering and performance of wearable fiber-shaped and plane-shaped OECTs in integrated wearable bioelectronics are summarized. Last, major challenges for future high-performance OECT-based bioelectronics are discussed.