Universal spray-deposition process for scalable, high-performance, and stable organic electrochemical transistors

• Main Authors: Wu, Xihu, Surendran, Abhijith, Moser, Maximilian, Chen, Shuai, Bening Tirta Muhammad, Maria, Iuliana Petruta, McCulloch, Iain, Leong, Wei Lin
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering; Spray-deposition; Organic Electrochemical Transistors
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/140358; https://doi.org/10.21979/N9/VXTFZ6
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) with high transconductance and good operating stability in an aqueous environment are receiving substantial attention as promising ion-to-electron transducers for bioelectronics. However, to date, in most of the reported OECTs, the fabrication procedures have been devoted to spin-coating processes that may nullify the advantages of large-area and scalable manufacturing. In addition, conventional microfabrication and photolithography techniques are complicated or incompatible with various nonplanar flexible and curved substrates. Herein, we demonstrate a facile patterning method via spray deposition to fabricate ionic-liquid-doped poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)-based OECTs, with a high peak transconductance of 12.9 mS and high device stability over 4000 switching cycles. More importantly, this facile technique makes it possible to fabricate high-performance OECTs on versatile substrates with different textures and form factors such as thin permeable membranes, flexible plastic sheets, hydrophobic elastomers, and rough textiles. Overall, the results highlight the spray-deposition technique as a convenient route to prepare high-performing OECTs and will contribute to the translation of OECTs into real-world applications.