{"title":"Dielectric interface passivation of polyelectrolyte-gated organic field-effect transistors for ultrasensitive low-voltage pressure sensors in wearable applications","authors":"Ziyang Liu , Zhigang Yin , Yue Jiang , Qingdong Zheng","doi":"10.1016/j.mtelec.2022.100001","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Polyelectrolyte-gated organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are promising electronic devices for advanced sensing. However, real applications of polyelectrolyte-gated wearable OFET sensors are greatly limited by their severe hysteresis, poor stability, and low sensitivity. Here, a facile dielectric interface passivation strategy is developed for improving the performance of flexible OFETs with polyelectrolyte dielectrics towards ultrasensitive pressure sensors in wearable applications. Impressively, low-voltage polyelectrolyte-gated OFETs with negligible hysteresis and high mobility are achieved with beneficial effects of efficient leakage suppression, fine interfacial compatibility, and good resistance to moisture/ion migration induced by a nanoscale thin passivation layer of polystyrene at the polyelectrolyte/semiconductor interface. The OFETs with this novel composite dielectric of polystyrene/polyelectrolyte are further designed into flexible ultrasensitive pressure sensors with an exceptionally high sensitivity of 897.9 kPa<sup>−1</sup> at a low-operating voltage of -2 V. The flexible low-power OFET pressure sensors have good operational stability and can serve as wearable devices to monitor human arm movement. By integrating the OFET sensors as a wearable array, it can effectively detect pressure distribution and achieve high-resolution mapping and tactile imaging, demonstrating their good potentials for electronic skins, wearable technologies and multi-touch applications.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100893,"journal":{"name":"Materials Today Electronics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772949422000018/pdfft?md5=48e3986d31c9895421ea685ad50cbd57&pid=1-s2.0-S2772949422000018-main.pdf","citationCount":"13","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Materials Today Electronics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772949422000018","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 13
Abstract
Polyelectrolyte-gated organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are promising electronic devices for advanced sensing. However, real applications of polyelectrolyte-gated wearable OFET sensors are greatly limited by their severe hysteresis, poor stability, and low sensitivity. Here, a facile dielectric interface passivation strategy is developed for improving the performance of flexible OFETs with polyelectrolyte dielectrics towards ultrasensitive pressure sensors in wearable applications. Impressively, low-voltage polyelectrolyte-gated OFETs with negligible hysteresis and high mobility are achieved with beneficial effects of efficient leakage suppression, fine interfacial compatibility, and good resistance to moisture/ion migration induced by a nanoscale thin passivation layer of polystyrene at the polyelectrolyte/semiconductor interface. The OFETs with this novel composite dielectric of polystyrene/polyelectrolyte are further designed into flexible ultrasensitive pressure sensors with an exceptionally high sensitivity of 897.9 kPa−1 at a low-operating voltage of -2 V. The flexible low-power OFET pressure sensors have good operational stability and can serve as wearable devices to monitor human arm movement. By integrating the OFET sensors as a wearable array, it can effectively detect pressure distribution and achieve high-resolution mapping and tactile imaging, demonstrating their good potentials for electronic skins, wearable technologies and multi-touch applications.