Electrolyte-gated polymer thin film transistors making use of ionic liquids and ionic liquid-solvent mixtures

Abstract

Electrolyte-Gated (EG) transistors, making use of electrolytes as the gating medium, are interesting for their low operation voltage. Furthermore, EG polymer transistors offer the advantage of solution processing, low cost, and mechanical flexibility. Despite the intense research activity in EG transistors, clear guidelines to correlate the properties of the materials used for the transistor channel and electrolytes with the doping effectiveness of the transistor channel are yet to be clearly established. Here, we investigate the use of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) based on the [TFSI] anion (namely, [EMIM][TFSI], [BMIM][TFSI], and [PYR14][TFSI]), to gate transistors making use of MEH-PPV as the channel material. Morphological studies of MEH-PPV and RTIL films showed a certain degree of segregation between the two components. All the EG transistors featured clear drain-source current modulations at voltages below 1 V. Polar solvent additives as propylene carbonate were used to improve the transistor response time.