Enhancement-mode PEDOT:PSS organic electrochemical transistors using molecular de-doping

Scott T. Keene, Tom P.A. van der Pol, Dante Zakhidov, Christ H.L. Weijtens, René A.J. Janssen, Alberto Salleo (Corresponding author), Yoeri van de Burgt (Corresponding author)

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Abstract

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) show great promise for flexible, low-cost, and low-voltage sensors for aqueous solutions. The majority of OECT devices are made using the polymer blend poly(ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), in which PEDOT is intrinsically doped due to inclusion of PSS. Because of this intrinsic doping, PEDOT:PSS OECTs generally operate in depletion mode, which results in a higher power consumption and limits stability. Here, a straightforward method to de-dope PEDOT:PSS using commercially available amine-based molecular de-dopants to achieve stable enhancement-mode OECTs is presented. The enhancement-mode OECTs show mobilities near that of pristine PEDOT:PSS (≈2 cm2 V−1 s−1) with stable operation over 1000 on/off cycles. The electron and proton exchange among PEDOT, PSS, and the molecular de-dopants are characterized to reveal the underlying chemical mechanism of the threshold voltage shift to negative voltages. Finally, the effect of the de-doping on the microstructure of the spin-cast PEDOT:PSS films is investigated.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2000270
Number of pages8
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume32
Issue number19
Early online date23 Mar 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2020

Funding

The authors would like to thank Camila Cendra and Dr. Christopher Tassone for fruitful discussions about X‐ray scattering. A.S. and S.T.K. acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation and the Semiconductor Research Corporation, E2CDA Type II Award #1739795 and DMR Award #1808401. Additionally, S.T.K. acknowledges the Stanford Graduate Fellowship fund grant number 6037395 for support. D.Z. and A.S. acknowledge the Stanford SystemX Seed Grant for support. This work was in part performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF) and the nano@Stanford (SNF) labs, which are supported by the National Science Foundation as part of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure under award ECCS‐1542152. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE‐AC02‐76SF00515. Y.v.d.B. gratefully acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, grant agreement No. 802615. C.H.L.W. and R.A.J.J. acknowledge funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (Spinoza prize). T.v.d.P. acknowledges funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Gravity program 024.001.035).

FundersFunder number
Camila Cendra
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy
Semiconductor Research Corporation1739795, 1808401
Stanford University6037395
Office of Science
Basic Energy SciencesDE‐AC02‐76SF00515
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen ForschungECCS‐1542152
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap024.001.035
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Horizon 2020802615

    Keywords

    • aliphatic amines
    • bioelectronics
    • enhancement-mode transistor
    • molecular doping
    • organic electrochemical transistor
    • poly(ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate

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