Development of Organic Thin-film Transistors with Molecular Recognition Ability for Chemical Sensing

Abstract

Organic thin-film devices consist of highly oriented π-conjugated molecules, which have attractive features, such as mechanical flexibility and controllability of the optical and electrical functions stemming from the molecules. Among them, we believe that organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) are some of the most suitable platforms to develop on-site sensors for environmental pollutants or biomarkers, owing to their low-manufacturing costs and easy fabrication processes. In this regard, we have developed extended gate-type OTFT-based chemical sensors, which are able to detect various sizes and types of chemical species (i.e. small ionic molecules, electrically neutral ones, and proteins). We believe that our proposed sensing system will open up a new aspect of organic thin-film devices for chemical analysis applications.