Biodegradable organic semiconductors: design strategies, degradation mechanisms, and performance trade-offs

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) are uniquely positioned to enable next-generation electronic technologies due to their intrinsic mechanical flexibility, solution processability, and chemical tunability. These characteristics make them particularly attractive for applications such as flexible, wearable, and biointegrated devices, while also providing a versatile platform for addressing emerging challenges in sustainable electronics. In this context, the integration of biodegradability into OSCs represents a promising strategy to mitigate the growing impact of electronic waste and to enable devices with controlled and programmable lifetimes. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in biodegradable OSCs, focusing on the interplay between molecular design, degradation pathways, and electronic performance. Strategies to impart degradability-such as the incorporation of cleavable bonds, side-chain engineering, and copolymer and terpolymer design-are discussed in relation to their impact on material properties. The main degradation mechanisms, including hydrolytic, oxidative, and enzymatic processes, are critically examined, together with the role of environmental factors and morphology in governing degradation kinetics. A central theme of this work is the inherent trade-off between biodegradability and electronic performance. While the introduction of labile functionalities enables controlled degradation, it often disrupts pi-conjugation and limits charge transport. Current approaches aimed at balancing these competing requirements, as well as emerging strategies such as dynamic covalent systems and circular material design, are highlighted. Overall, this review outlines key challenges and future directions for the development of biodegradable OSCs, emphasizing the need for integrated design approaches that simultaneously address performance, degradability, and scalability toward sustainable electronic technologies.