IIT Mandi develops durable material for flexible electronics and wearables

A new breakthrough from researchers at IIT Mandi could pave the way for durable, flexible electronics that can survive real-world wear and tear.

The team has successfully developed a composite material that combines tungsten disulfide (WS) with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), enabling long-term stability and flexibility in ultra-thin semiconductors.

Professor Viswanath Balakrishnan, along with Yadu Chandran, Dr Deepa Thakur, and Anjali Sharma, led the research. The team created a non-destructive, water-mediated method for transferring monolayers of WS into a PDMS matrix.

This approach not only preserves the material’s structural integrity but also enhances its suitability for practical applications.

"Typically, materials this thin degrade rapidly when exposed to the air," said a member of the team.

To overcome this, the researchers encapsulated WS in PDMS, a soft and biocompatible substance. The result was a WS-PDMS composite that remained stable for over a year without any signs of degradation.

The material demonstrated strong performance in tests, enduring thousands of bending cycles and retaining its electrical and optical characteristics.

When vertically stacked, the layers achieved four times greater optical absorption while maintaining their original properties.

The significance of this innovation lies in its real-world potential. From wearable health monitors and bendable smartphones to solar cells and quantum light sources, the material offers a platform for developing flexible and durable electronic devices.

“As PDMS is biocompatible, the material can be used directly on the human body,” the researchers noted, pointing to applications in continuous health monitoring.

This development also supports India’s National Quantum Mission, which has a budget allocation of ₹6,000 crore.

The mission aims to advance quantum computing, secure communication, and other next-gen quantum technologies.

With a fabrication process that is non-toxic, cost-effective, and scalable, the researchers believe their work could benefit both industry and academia.

It opens up new possibilities for mass-producing flexible electronics, energy-efficient systems, and even medical devices.

By addressing the longstanding issue of material degradation, the IIT Mandi team has taken a major step toward enabling the future of flexible and quantum technologies.