Flexible electronics are often sold on a simple promise: bendable screens, lightweight solar cells or wearable devices that can bend and flex without breaking. But what does that ‘flexibility’ actually look like at the molecular scale, and how does it affect performance?
Researchers have analysed the properties of an organic polymer with potential applications in flexible electronics and uncovered variations in hardness at the nanoscale, the first time such a fine structure has been observed in this type of material.
Researchers have found that certain organic semiconducting materials can transport spin faster than they conduct charge, a phenomenon which could eventually power faster, more energy-efficient computers.
© 2026 University of Cambridge