Transfer Printing of Two-Dimensional Molecular Crystals for Low-Voltage, High-Performance, and Degradable Transistors

Abstract

Despite the recent progress in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) gated by high-capacitance dielectrics, it remains a great challenge to manufacture low-voltage, high-performance, and degradable transistors. Herein, two-dimensional molecular crystals (2DMCs) are exploited to fabricate high-performance OFETs gated by water-soluble methylcellulose with high capacitance. To overcome the dissolution of methylcellulose during the conventional transfer process, 2DMCs of p-type benzothiophene derivative C8-BTBT and n-type furan-thiophene quinoidal compound TFT-CN are transferred onto methylcellulose films by the transfer printing technique. High mobility and steep subthreshold swing (SS) under low-operating voltage are achieved for the methylcellulose-gated 2DMC OFETs. Remarkably, the TFT-CN OFETs can be operated at an ultralow voltage of 1 V with the highest electron mobility of 2.09 cm²/V·s and the lowest SS value of 110 mV/dec. Importantly, the methylcellulose-gated devices can be degraded by a water rinse. Overall, these results present a universal strategy for transfer printing 2DMCs on water-soluble dielectric substrates toward low-voltage, high-performance, and degradable OFETs.