Thermally Triggered Vanishing Bulk Polyoxymethylene for Transient Electronics

Transient materials capable of disappearing rapidly and completely are critical for transient electronics. End-capped polyoxymethylene (POM) has excellent mechanical properties and thermal stability. However, research concerning the inherent thermal instability of POM without end-capping to obtain transient rather than stable materials, has never been reported. Here, POM without end-capping is proposed as a novel thermally triggered transient solid material that can vanish rapidly by undergoing conversion to a volatile gas, and a chemical vapor deposition method is developed to obtain a smooth POM substrate from the synthesized POM powder. Experimental and theoretical analysis was employed to reveal the mechanism whereby the POM substrate formed and vanished. A Cr/Au/SiO2/Cu memristor device, which was successfully deposited on the POM substrate by physical vapor deposition, exhibits bipolar resistive switching, suggesting that the POM substrate is suitable for use in electrical devices. Thermal triggering causes the POM substrate to vanish as the memristor disintegrates, confirming excellent transient performance. The deposited bulk POM material can completely vanish by thermally triggered depolymerization, and is suitable for physically transient substrates and packaging materials, demonstrating great prospects for application in transient electronics for information security.