Investigation of an Agar Biosubstrate for the Fabrication of a Flexible Organic N-type Transistor

Biosourced materials for organic electronics generate an increasing interest in the development of “eco-friendly” electronics. In fact, a considerable attention is focused on green polymers in order to reduce the impact of petroleum-sourced ones and to preserve the environmental sustainability, particularly in plant-derived materials. Such materials can provide huge potential such as the development of low-cost, large-area, and biocompatible electronic devices with good mechanical properties, for a large panel of applications, including biological and medical fields. In this paper, we report on the feasibility, the performance, and the electrical stability of flexible N-type organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) based on an agar biosubstrate and fullerene C60 organic semiconductor. The fabricated OFETs exhibit a field-effect mobility μFE = 7 × 10–2 cm2·V–1·s–1, a threshold voltage VTH = 14 V, a subthreshold slope SS = 4 V·dec–1, and an on/off ratio IDon/IDoff = 7 × 103. The electrical characteristics of biosubstrate OFETs are presented and compared to those of OFETs fabricated on the glass substrate.