The development of transistors with high gain is essential for applications ranging from switching elements and drivers to transducers for chemical and biological sensing. Organic transistors have become well-established based on their distinct advantages, including ease of fabrication, synthetic freedom for chemical functionalization, and the ability to take on unique form factors. These devices, however, are largely viewed as belonging to the low-end of the performance spectrum. Here we present organic electrochemical transistors with a transconductance in the mS range, outperforming transistors from both traditional and emerging semiconductors. The transconductance of these devices remains fairly constant from DC up to a frequency of the order of 1 kHz, a value determined by the process of ion transport between the electrolyte and the channel. These devices, which continue to work even after being crumpled, are predicted to be highly relevant as transducers in biosensing applications.

Despite recent interest in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), sparked by their straightforward fabrication and high performance, the fundamental mechanism behind their operation remains largely unexplored. OECTs use an electrolyte in direct contact with a polymer channel as part of their device structure. Hence, they offer facile integration with biological milieux and are currently used as amplifying transducers for bioelectronics. Ion exchange between electrolyte and channel is believed to take place in OECTs, although the extent of this process and its impact on device characteristics are still unknown. We show that the uptake of ions from an electrolyte into a film of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) leads to a purely volumetric capacitance of 39 F/cm³. This results in a dependence of the transconductance on channel thickness, a new degree of freedom that we exploit to demonstrate high-quality recordings of human brain rhythms. Our results bring to the forefront a transistor class in which performance can be tuned independently of device footprint and provide guidelines for the design of materials that will lead to state-of-the-art transistor performance.

Electrolyte-gated transistors (EGTs), capable of transducing biological and biochemical inputs into amplified electronic signals and stably operating in aqueous environments, have emerged as fundamental building blocks in bioelectronics. In this Primer, the different EGT architectures are described with the fundamental mechanisms underpinning their functional operation, providing insight into key experiments including necessary data analysis and validation. Several organic and inorganic materials used in the EGT structures and the different fabrication approaches for an optimal experimental design are presented and compared. The functional bio-layers and/or biosystems integrated into or interfaced to EGTs, including self-organization and self-assembly strategies, are reviewed. Relevant and promising applications are discussed, including two-dimensional and three-dimensional cell monitoring, ultra-sensitive biosensors, electrophysiology, synaptic and neuromorphic bio-interfaces, prosthetics and robotics. Advantages, limitations and possible optimizations are also surveyed. Finally, current issues and future directions for further developments and applications are discussed.

The rising field of bioelectronics, which couples the realms of electronics and biology, holds huge potential for the development of novel biomedical devices for therapeutics and diagnostics. Organic electronic devices are particularly promising; the use of robust organic electronic materials provides an ideal biointerface due to their reported biocompatibility, and mechanical matching between the sensor element and the biological environment, are amongst the advantages unique to this class of materials. One promising device emerging from this field is the organic electrochemical transistor (OECT). Arguably, the most important feature of an OECT is that it provides local amplification and as such can be used as a high fidelity transducer of biological events. Additionally, the OECT combines properties and characteristics that can be tuned for a wide spectrum of biological applications. Here, we frame the development of the OECT with respect to its underlying optimization for a variety of different applications, including ion sensing, enzymatic sensing, and electrophysiology. These applications have allowed the development of OECTs to sense local ionic/biomolecular and single cell activity, as well characterization of tissue and even monitoring of function of whole organs. The body of work reviewed here demonstrates that the OECT is an extremely versatile device that emerges as an important player for therapeutics and diagnostics. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41735.

The bulk of the currently available biosensing techniques often require complex liquid handling, and thus suffer from problems associated with leakage and contamination. We demonstrate the use of an organic electrochemical transistor for detection of lactate (an essential analyte in physiological measurements of athlete performance) by integration of a room temperature ionic liquid in a gel-format, as a solid-state electrolyte.