Proton conducting sodium-alginate-gated oxide thin-film transistors with varying device structure

Abstract

The solution-processed sodium-alginate (SA) films, with nanoporous/nanochannel microstructure, possess a total absorbed water number of 10420 ± 395 molecules per square nanometer, which gives rise to a high proton conductivity of 4.0 × 10−4 S cm−1. When SA films used as gate dielectric in the thin film transistors, electric-double-layer (EDL) would be formed whether at the dielectric/channel or at dielectric/gate electrode interface, leading to a huge specific capacitance and low operating voltage for the TFTs. More importantly, due to the three-dimensional proton conducting characteristic, one can design the TFT device structure expediently from conventional vertical gate coupling to laterally coplanar gate coupling structure. The TFTs with ease-design device layout have potential applications in multifunctional electronic devices.