Fibre-based organic electrochemical transistors: principle, evaluation, and application
Source abstract
Abstract
Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are emerging organic semiconducting devices intensively used in biological detection, environmental monitoring, biomimetic electronics, and computing circuits, due to the high transconductance, low working voltage, and exceptional biocompatibility. Most reported OECTs are based on planar structures built by two dimensional (2D) semiconducting materials, which have found great challenges of rigid architecture, complicated fabrication, and small-scale production. To improve overall performance and extend the use of OECTs into wearables, integralization, miniaturization, and intellectualization, researchers have made intensive efforts to use 1D conducting polymer fibres as active channel for building new breed of fibre-based OECTs, namely F-OECTs. Here we present the research progress of F-OECTs along three lines: working principles, evaluation methods, and applications. Covering from P-type polymer to N-type polymer, various kinds of conducting polymers have been processed into channel materials of F-OECTs through mainstream wet spinning methods. The prepared F-OECTs have been widely used in in vivo recording, in vitro detection, neuromorphic sensing, and logical circuits. To conclude this review, we summarized current challenges in terms of performance optimization and material innovation, further suggesting possible solutions. This review could provide guidance for understanding the working principles of F-OECTs, designing high-performance F-OECTs, and fabricating advanced electronics.
Source: openalex_inverted_index · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Conducting polymers and applications · Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics · Perovskite Materials and Applications
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
References (100+)
Show source-provided references
1. Sun, H., Gerasimov, J., Berggren, M. & Fabiano, S. N-type organic electrochemical transistors: materials and challenges. J. Mater. Chem. C. 6, 11778–11784 (2018).10.1039/C8TC03185A ↗
2. Facchetti, A. Semiconductors for organic transistors. Mater. Today 10, 28–37 (2007).10.1016/S1369-7021(07)70017-2 ↗
3. Kim, S. H. et al. Electrolyte-gated transistors for organic and printed electronics. Adv. Mater. 25, 1822–1846 (2013).10.1002/adma.201202790 ↗
4. Inal, S., Malliaras, G. G. & Rivnay, J. Benchmarking organic mixed conductors for transistors. Nat. Commun. 8, 1767 (2017).10.1038/s41467-017-01812-w ↗
5. Rivnay, J. et al. Organic electrochemical transistors. Nat. Rev. Mater. 3, 86 (2018).10.1038/natrevmats.2017.86 ↗
6. Marks, A., Griggs, S., Gasparini, N. & Moser, M. Organic electrochemical transistors: an emerging technology for biosensing. Adv. Mater. Interfaces 9, 2102039 (2022).10.1002/admi.202102039 ↗
7. Picca, R. A. et al. Ultimately sensitive organic bioelectronic transistor sensors by materials and device structure design. Adv. Funct. Mater. 30, 1904513 (2020).10.1002/adfm.201904513 ↗
8. White, H. S., Kittlesen, G. P. & Wrighton, M. S. Chemical derivatization of an array of three gold microelectrodes with polypyrrole: fabrication of a molecule-based transistor. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 106, 5375–5377 (1984).10.1021/ja00330a070 ↗
9. Bernards, D. A. & Malliaras, G. G. Steady-state and transient behavior of organic electrochemical transistors. Adv. Funct. Mater. 17, 3538–3544 (2007).10.1002/adfm.200601239 ↗
10. Lee, C. H. & Hsu, S. H. Prediction of equivalent-circuit parameters for double-layer capacitors module. IEEE Trans. Energy Convers. 28, 913–920 (2013).10.1109/TEC.2013.2285252 ↗
11. Shinn, M., Lam, N. H. & Murray, J. D. A flexible framework for simulating and fitting generalized drift-diffusion models. eLife 9, e56938 (2020).10.7554/eLife.56938 ↗
12. Eisenberg, B. & Liu, W. Poisson–nernst–planck systems for ion channels with permanent charges. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 38, 1932–1966 (2007).10.1137/060657480 ↗
13. Rivnay, J., Noriega, R., Kline, R. J., Salleo, A. & Toney, M. F. Quantitative analysis of lattice disorder and crystallite size in organic semiconductor thin films. Phys. Rev. B 84, 045203 (2011).10.1103/PhysRevB.84.045203 ↗
14. Rivnay, J. et al. Drastic control of texture in a high performance n-type polymeric semiconductor and implications for charge transport. Macromolecules 44, 5246–5255 (2011).10.1021/ma200864s ↗
15. Rivnay, J., Mannsfeld, S. C. B., Miller, C. E., Salleo, A. & Toney, M. F. Quantitative determination of organic semiconductor microstructure from the molecular to device scale. Chem. Rev. 112, 5488–5519 (2012).10.1021/cr3001109 ↗
16. Feng, J. Y. et al. All-polymer fiber organic electrochemical transistor for chronic chemical detection in the brain. Adv. Funct. Mater. 33, 2214945 (2023).10.1002/adfm.202214945 ↗
17. Kim, S. J. et al. Dendritic network implementable organic neurofiber transistors with enhanced memory cyclic endurance for spatiotemporal iterative learning. Adv. Mater. 33, 2100475 (2021).10.1002/adma.202100475 ↗
18. Rivnay, J. et al. Organic electrochemical transistors for cell-based impedance sensing. Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 043301 (2015).10.1063/1.4906872 ↗
19. Lu, M. J. et al. Regulating light-sensitive gate of organic photoelectrochemical transistor toward sensitive biodetection at zero gate bias. Small Struct. 2, 2100087 (2021).10.1002/sstr.202100087 ↗
20. Tang, H., Yan, F., Lin, P., Xu, J. B. & Chan, H. L. W. Highly sensitive glucose biosensors based on organic electrochemical transistors using platinum gate electrodes modified with enzyme and nanomaterials. Adv. Funct. Mater. 21, 2264–2272 (2011).10.1002/adfm.201002117 ↗
21. Lin, P., Yan, F. & Chan, H. L. W. Ion-sensitive properties of organic electrochemical transistors. Acs Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2, 1637–1641 (2010).10.1021/am100154e ↗
22. Wang, X. et al. Ultrastable N-type semiconducting fiber organic electrochemical transistors for highly sensitive biosensors. Adv. Mater. 36, 2400287 (2024).10.1002/adma.202400287 ↗
23. Gkoupidenis, P., Koutsouras, D. A. & Malliaras, G. G. Neuromorphic device architectures with global connectivity through electrolyte gating. Nat. Commun. 8, 15448 (2017).10.1038/ncomms15448 ↗
24. Gkoupidenis, P., Schaefer, N., Garlan, B. & Malliaras, G. G. Neuromorphic functions in PEDOT:PSS organic electrochemical transistors. Adv. Mater. 27, 7176–7180 (2015).10.1002/adma.201503674 ↗
25. Xu, W., Min, S. Y., Hwang, H. & Lee, T. W. Organic core-sheath nanowire artificial synapses with femtojoule energy consumption. Sci. Adv. 2, e1501326 (2016).10.1126/sciadv.1501326 ↗
26. Hamedi, M., Forchheimer, R. & Inganäs, O. Towards woven logic from organic electronic fibres. Nat. Mater. 6, 357–362 (2007).10.1038/nmat1884 ↗
27. Jo, Y. J. et al. Fibrillary gelation and dedoping of PEDOT:PSS fibers for interdigitated organic electrochemical transistors and circuits. npj Flex. Electron. 6, 31 (2022).10.1038/s41528-022-00167-7 ↗
28. Zhang, H. Z. et al. Recent progress of fiber-based transistors: materials, structures and applications. Front. Optoelectron 15, 2 (2022).10.1007/s12200-022-00002-x ↗
29. Wang, N., Yang, A., Fu, Y., Li, Y. & Yan, F. Functionalized organic thin film transistors for biosensing. Acc. Chem. Res. 52, 277–287 (2019).10.1021/acs.accounts.8b00448 ↗
30. Lin, P. & Yan, F. Organic thin-film transistors for chemical and biological sensing. Adv. Mater. 24, 34–51 (2012).10.1002/adma.201103334 ↗
31. Mabeck, J. T. & Malliaras, G. G. Chemical and biological sensors based on organic thin-film transistors. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 384, 343–353 (2006).10.1007/s00216-005-3390-2 ↗
32. Yu, J. et al. Fiber-shaped triboiontronic electrochemical transistor. Research 2021, 9840918 (2021).10.34133/2021/9840918 ↗
33. Qing, X. et al. All-fiber integrated thermoelectrically powered physiological monitoring biosensor. Adv. Fiber Mater. 5, 1025–1036 (2023).10.1007/s42765-023-00258-8 ↗
34. Friedlein, J. T., McLeod, R. R. & Rivnay, J. Device physics of organic electrochemical transistors. Org. Electron. 63, 398–414 (2018).10.1016/j.orgel.2018.09.010 ↗
35. Bharti, R., Gupta, J., Rajamani, P., Moulick, R. G. & Bhattacharya, J. Iron oxide nanoparticles/PEDOT: PSS nanocomposite-based modification of both glassy carbon electrode and flexible cotton fiber OECT for highly sensitive multi-analytes detection. Appl. Nanosci. 12, 3823–3833 (2022).10.1007/s13204-022-02565-9 ↗
36. Raza, A. et al. A focused review on organic electrochemical transistors: a potential futuristic technological application in microelectronics. Microchem. J. 207, 111737 (2024).10.1016/j.microc.2024.111737 ↗
37. Tian, Z., Zhao, Z. & Yan, F. Organic electrochemical transistor in wearable bioelectronics: profiles, applications, and integration. Wearable Electron. 1, 1–25 (2024).10.1016/j.wees.2024.03.002 ↗
38. Ilyassov, B., Zavgorodniy, A., Alekseev, A. & Aldasheva, L. Rectifying behavior of organic electrochemical transistors. Phys. B Condens. Matter 696, 416620 (2025).10.1016/j.physb.2024.416620 ↗
39. Ohayon, D., Druet, V. & Inal, S. A guide for the characterization of organic electrochemical transistors and channel materials. Chem. Soc. Rev. 52, 1001–1023 (2023).10.1039/D2CS00920J ↗
40. Gao, Y. et al. A hybrid transistor with transcriptionally controlled computation and plasticity. Nat. Commun. 15, 1598 (2024).10.1038/s41467-024-45759-1 ↗
41. Yan, C. et al. Lateral intercalation-assisted ionic transport towards high-performance organic electrochemical transistor. Nat. Commun. 15, 10118 (2024).10.1038/s41467-024-54528-z ↗
42. Gregory, S. A. et al. Quantifying charge carrier localization in pbttt using thermoelectric and spectroscopic techniques. J. Phys. Chem. C. 127, 12206–12217 (2023).10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c01152 ↗
43. Holliday, S. et al. High-efficiency and air-stable P3HT-based polymer solar cells with a new non-fullerene acceptor. Nat. Commun. 7, 11585 (2016).10.1038/ncomms11585 ↗
44. Cendra, C. et al. Role of the anion on the transport and structure of organic mixed conductors. Adv. Funct. Mater. 29, 1807034 (2019).10.1002/adfm.201807034 ↗
45. Paulsen, B.D., Tybrandt, K., Stavrinidou, E. & Rivnay, J. Organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors progress at pace. Nat. Mater. 23, 577–577 (2024).10.1038/s41563-024-01902-3 ↗
46. Tao, Y. et al. Fiber based organic electrochemical transistor integrated with molecularly imprinted membrane for uric acid detection. Talanta 238, 123055 (2022).10.1016/j.talanta.2021.123055 ↗
47. Bitton, S., Alarcon-Espejo, P., Paterson, A. F. & Tessler, N. Experimentally verified organic electrochemical transistor model. J. Appl. Phys. 136, 125501 (2024).10.1063/5.0230004 ↗
48. Friedlein, J. T., Shaheen, S. E., Malliaras, G. G. & McLeod, R. R. Optical measurements revealing nonuniform hole mobility in organic electrochemical transistors. Adv. Electron. Mater. 1, 1500189 (2015).10.1002/aelm.201500189 ↗
49. Paudel, P. R., Tropp, J., Kaphle, V., Azoulay, J. D. & Lüssem, B. Organic electrochemical transistors – from device models to a targeted design of materials. J. Mater. Chem. C. 9, 9761–9790 (2021).10.1039/D1TC01601F ↗
50. Zhong, Y. H. et al. High-performance fiber-shaped vertical organic electrochemical transistors patterned by surface photolithography. Chem. Mater. 35, 9739–9746 (2023).10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c02237 ↗
51. Qing, X. et al. High gain fiber-shaped transistor based on rGO-mediated hierarchical polypyrrole for ultrasensitive sweat sensor. Sens. Actuat A Phys. 354, 114297 (2023).10.1016/j.sna.2023.114297 ↗
52. Abruña, H. D., Kiya, Y. & Henderson, J. C. Batteries and electrochemical capacitors. Phys. Today 61, 43–47 (2008).10.1063/1.3047681 ↗
53. Inal, S. et al. A high transconductance accumulation mode electrochemical transistor. Adv. Mater. 26, 7450–7455 (2014).10.1002/adma.201403150 ↗
54. Stavrinidou, E. et al. Direct measurement of ion mobility in a conducting polymer. Adv. Mater. 25, 4488–4493 (2013).10.1002/adma.201301240 ↗
55. Khodagholy, D. et al. High transconductance organic electrochemical transistors. Nat. Commun. 4, 2133 (2013).10.1038/ncomms3133 ↗
56. Khodagholy, D. et al. In vivo recordings of brain activity using organic transistors. Nat. Commun. 4, 1575 (2013).10.1038/ncomms2573 ↗
57. Sharbati, M. T. et al. Low-power, electrochemically tunable graphene synapses for neuromorphic computing. Adv. Mater. 30, e1802353 (2018).10.1002/adma.201802353 ↗
58. Kim, Y. et al. Strain-engineering induced anisotropic crystallite orientation and maximized carrier mobility for high-performance microfiber-based organic bioelectronic devices. Adv. Mater. 33, 2007550 (2021).10.1002/adma.202007550 ↗
59. Zhang, L. S. & Andrew, T. Vapor-coated monofilament fibers for embroidered electrochemical transistor arrays on fabrics. Adv. Electron. Mater. 4, 1800271 (2018).10.1002/aelm.201800271 ↗
60. Kushida, S. et al. Fast response organic supramolecular transistors utilizing in-situ pi-ion gels. Adv. Mater. 33, 2006061 (2021).10.1002/adma.202006061 ↗
61. Xi, X. et al. Manipulating the sensitivity and selectivity of oect-based biosensors via the surface engineering of carbon cloth gate electrodes. Adv. Funct. Mater. 30, 1905361 (2020).10.1002/adfm.201905361 ↗
62. Yu, S. & Ratcliff, E. L. Tuning organic electrochemical transistor (oect) transconductance toward zero gate voltage in the faradaic mode. Acs Appl. Mater. Interfaces 13, 50176–50186 (2021).10.1021/acsami.1c13009 ↗
63. Xie, M. et al. Cycling stability of organic electrochemical transistors. Org. Electron. 117, 106777 (2023).10.1016/j.orgel.2023.106777 ↗
64. Wang, Y. & Liu, Y. Insight into conjugated polymers for organic electrochemical transistors. Trends Chem. 5, 279–294 (2023).10.1016/j.trechm.2023.01.006 ↗
65. Li, P. & Lei, T. Molecular design strategies for high-performance organic electrochemical transistors. J. Polym. Sci. 60, 377–392 (2022).10.1002/pol.20210503 ↗
66. Saleh, A., Koklu, A., Uguz, I., Pappa, A.-M. & Inal, S. Bioelectronic interfaces of organic electrochemical transistors. Nat. Rev. Bioeng. 2, 559–574 (2024).10.1038/s44222-024-00180-7 ↗
67. Wang, Y. et al. Designing organic mixed conductors for electrochemical transistor applications. Nat. Rev. Mater. 9, 249–265 (2024).10.1038/s41578-024-00652-7 ↗
68. Romele, P., Ghittorelli, M., Kovács-Vajna, Z. M. & Torricelli, F. Ion buffering and interface charge enable high performance electronics with organic electrochemical transistors. Nat. Commun. 10, 3044 (2019).10.1038/s41467-019-11073-4 ↗
69. Rimmele, M., Glocklhofer, F. & Heeney, M. Post-polymerisation approaches for the rapid modification of conjugated polymer properties. Mater. Horiz. 9, 2678–2697 (2022).10.1039/D2MH00519K ↗
70. Heeger, A. J. Semiconducting and metallic polymers: the fourth generation of polymeric materials. J. Phys. Chem. B 105, 8475–8491 (2001).10.1021/jp011611w ↗
71. Sirringhaus, H., Tessler, N. & Friend, R. H. Integrated optoelectronic devices based on conjugated polymers. Sci 280, 1741–1744 (1998).10.1126/science.280.5370.1741 ↗
72. Brédas, J.-L., Beljonne, D., Coropceanu, V. & Cornil, J. Charge-transfer and energy-transfer processes in π-conjugated oligomers and polymers: a molecular picture. Chem. Rev. 104, 4971–5004 (2004).10.1021/cr040084k ↗
73. Dimitrakopoulos, C. D. & Malenfant, P. R. L. Organic thin film transistors for large area electronics. Adv. Mater. 14, 99–117 (2002).10.1002/1521-4095(20020116)14:2<99::AID-ADMA99>3.0.CO;2-9 ↗
74. Yu, Z.-D. et al. High n-type and p-type conductivities and power factors achieved in a single conjugated polymer. Sci. Adv. 9, eadf3495 (2023).10.1126/sciadv.adf3495 ↗
75. Lin, P., Luo, X., Hsing, I.-M. & Yan, F. Organic electrochemical transistors integrated in flexible microfluidic systems and used for label-free dna sensing. Adv. Mater. 23, 4035–4040 (2011).10.1002/adma.201102017 ↗
76. Zhang, S. et al. Patterning of stretchable organic electrochemical transistors. Chem. Mater. 29, 3126–3132 (2017).10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00181 ↗
77. Majak, D., Fan, J. & Gupta, M. Fully 3D printed OECT based logic gate for detection of cation type and concentration. Sens. Actuators, B 286, 111–118 (2019).10.1016/j.snb.2019.01.120 ↗
78. Gualandi, I. et al. Textile organic electrochemical transistors as a platform for wearable biosensors. Sci. Rep. 6, 33637 (2016).10.1038/srep33637 ↗
79. Lin, H. et al. Conjugated polymers for biomedical applications. Chem. Commun. 58, 7232–7244 (2022).10.1039/D2CC02177C ↗
80. Hussain, S. et al. Rational design of signal amplifying fluorescent conjugated polymers for environmental monitoring applications: Recent advances and perspectives. Coord. Chem. Rev. 499, 215480 (2024).10.1016/j.ccr.2023.215480 ↗
81. Shen, Q. et al. Sensing, imaging, and therapeutic strategies endowing by conjugate polymers for precision medicine. Adv. Mater. 36, 2310032 (2024).10.1002/adma.202310032 ↗
82. Lan, L. et al. Facilely accessible porous conjugated polymers toward high-performance and flexible organic electrochemical transistors. Chem. Mater. 34, 1666–1676 (2022).10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c03797 ↗
83. Yi, Y., An, H.-W. & Wang, H. Intelligent biomaterialomics: molecular design, manufacturing, and biomedical applications. Adv. Mater. 36, 2305099 (2024).10.1002/adma.202305099 ↗
84. Keene, S. T. et al. Enhancement-mode PEDOT:PSS organic electrochemical transistors using molecular de-doping. Adv. Mater. 32, 2000270 (2020).10.1002/adma.202000270 ↗
85. Glaudell, A. M., Cochran, J. E., Patel, S. N. & Chabinyc, M. L. Impact of the doping method on conductivity and thermopower in semiconducting polythiophenes. Adv. Energy Mater. 5, 1401072 (2015).10.1002/aenm.201401072 ↗
86. Fall, A. B. et al. Spinning of stiff and conductive filaments from cellulose nanofibrils and pedot:pss nanocomplexes. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 4, 4119–4130 (2022).10.1021/acsapm.2c00073 ↗
87. Paul, E. W., Ricco, A. J. & Wrighton, M. S. Resistance of polyaniline films as a function of electrochemical potential and the fabrication of polyaniline-based microelectronic devices. J. Phys. Chem. 89, 1441–1447 (1985).10.1021/j100254a028 ↗
88. Schmode, P. et al. High-performance organic electrochemical transistors based on conjugated polyelectrolyte copolymers. Chem. Mat. 31, 5286–5295 (2019).10.1021/acs.chemmater.9b01722 ↗
89. Chae, S. et al. Impact of molecular weight on the ionic and electronic transport of self-doped conjugated polyelectrolytes relevant to organic electrochemical transistors. Adv. Funct. Mater. 34, 2310852 (2024).10.1002/adfm.202310852 ↗
90. Yang, C.-Y. et al. A high-conductivity n-type polymeric ink for printed electronics. Nat. Commun. 12, 2354 (2021).10.1038/s41467-021-22528-y ↗
91. Griggs, S., Marks, A., Bristow, H. & McCulloch, I. N-Type organic semiconducting polymers: stability limitations, design considerations and applications. J. Mater. Chem. C. 9, 8099–8128 (2021).10.1039/D1TC02048J ↗
92. Sworakowski, J. How accurate are energies of HOMO and LUMO levels in small-molecule organic semiconductors determined from cyclic voltammetry or optical spectroscopy? Synth. Met. 235, 125–130 (2018).10.1016/j.synthmet.2017.11.013 ↗
93. Bischak, C. G. et al. Active layers for n-Type organic electrochemical transistors. Acs Appl. Mater. Inter. 11, 28138–28144 (2019).10.1021/acsami.9b11370 ↗
94. Tung, N. et al. Air-stable perylene diimide trimer material for n-type organic electrochemical transistors. Adv. Mater. 36, 2312254 (2024).10.1002/adma.202312254 ↗
95. Tang, H. et al. A solution-processed N-type conducting polymer with ultrahigh conductivity. Nature 611, 271–277 (2022).10.1038/s41586-022-05295-8 ↗
96. Li, D. et al. Unveiling organic electrode materials in aqueous zinc-ion batteries: from structural design to electrochemical performance. Nano-Micro Lett. 16, 194 (2024).10.1007/s40820-024-01404-6 ↗
97. Sun, Y. et al. Indacenodithiophene-based single-component ambipolar polymer for high-performance vertical organic electrochemical transistors and inverters. Aggregate 5, e577 (2024).10.1002/agt2.577 ↗
98. Mohammadi, E. et al. Ion gel dynamic templates for large modulation of morphology and charge ntransport properties of solution-coated conjugated polymer thin films. Acs Appl. Mater. Inter. 11, 22561–22574 (2019).10.1021/acsami.9b02923 ↗
99. Keene, S. T. et al. Hole-limited electrochemical doping in conjugated polymers. Nat. Mater. 22, 1121–1127 (2023).10.1038/s41563-023-01601-5 ↗
100. Lu, D. & Chen, H. Solid-state organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) based on gel electrolytes for biosensors and bioelectronics. J. Mater. Chem. A 13, 136–157 (2025).10.1039/D4TA05288A ↗