Organic bioelectronics based on conducting polymers have radically changed approaches to bioelectronic devices for a wide variety of medical diagnostics and therapies. While conducting polymers initially made impacts as passive interface materials (electrodes, etc.), more recently their integration into organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), the elementary unit of organic bioelectronics, has created active devices for highly sensitive and selective biosensors, and neural recording or stimulation. A step change in organic bioelectronics will be to use the OECT in building electronic circuitry. This could most effectively be achieved using complementary circuits that feature p-type (hole majority) and n-type (electron majority) transistors in series. Complementary circuits are a major challenge for OECTs since they are mostly comprised of p-type materials; n-type polymers synthesized so far have low carrier mobility and low stability in water. Here we report a complementary logic circuit based on OECTs using only one material as an active channel. We demonstrate its engineering into a flexible bioelectronic device that operates in aqueous electrolyte. Our approach of using one material simplifies the synthesis and processing design and eliminates the need of sourcing a material with matching performance.

OECT-based complementary circuit featuring a single material in both active channels

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.