Development of sustainable conjugated polyelectrolytes for organic electrochemical transistors

In today´s digital era, biological and chemical sensing are vital across various applications.

While conventional inorganic sensors come with limitations in flexibility, biocompatibility, and implantation, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have emerged as potential alternatives due to their facile deposition, and excellent performance in diverse applications such as chemical sensing, biological interfaces, and neuromorphic computing.

However, current OECT fabrication heavily relies on PEDOT:PSS, a commercial polymer, which lacks chemical tunability and compositional information.

Consequently, this project aims to diversify material options by establishing the first guideline on developing and utilizing conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs), a potential category of conducting polymers for OECT applications.

With a three-year timeline and the guidance of Professor Thuc-Quyen Nguyen and Professor Mahiar Max Hamedi, distinguished scientists in semiconducting polymers and organic electronic research, the project will employ advanced techniques available at the host institutions to explore the relation between structure and function in CPEs, delve into their device physics, and create a biodegradable CPE-based OECT for fertilizer ions sensing.

The expected outcomes of the project will lay a solid background for the future evolution of CPE-based organic electronics, while also providing a sustainable sensing solution for applications, e.g. in agriculture and the environment.