Study of Physically Transient Insulating Materials as a Potential Platform for Transient Electronics and Bioelectronics

Controlled degradation and transiency of materials is of significant importance in the design and fabrication of degradable and transient biomedical and electronic devices and platforms. Here, the synthesis of programmable biodegradable and transient insulating polymer films is reported, which have sufficient physical and chemical properties to be used as substrates for the construction of transient electronics. The composite structure can be used as a means to control the dissolution and transiency rate of the polymer composite film. Experimental and computational studies demonstrate that the addition of gelatin or sucrose to a PVA polymer matrix can be used as a means to program and either slow or enhance the transiency of the composite. The dissolution of the polymer composites are fitted with inverse exponential functions of different time constants; the lower time constants are an indication of faster transiency of the polymer composite. The addition of gelatin results in larger time constants, whereas the addition of sucrose generally results in smaller time constants.