Environmentally sustainable organic field effect transistors

Environmentally sustainable systems for the design, production, and handling of electronic devices should be developed to solve the dramatic increase in electronic waste. Sustainability in plastic electronics may be the production of electronic devices from natural materials, or materials found in common commodity products accepted by society. Thereby biodegradable, biocompatible, bioresorbable, or even metabolizable electronics may become reality. Transistors with an operational voltage as low as 6 V, a source drain current of up to 0.5 mu A and an on-off ratio up to four orders of magnitude, with saturated field effect mobilities in the range of 1.5 x 10 (4) to 2 x 10 (2) cm(2)/ V s, have been fabricated with such materials. Our work comprises steps towards environmentally safe devices in low-cost, large volume, disposable or throwaway electronic applications, such as in food packaging, plastic bags, and disposable dishware. In addition, there is significant potential to use such electronic items in biomedical implants. As such, organic materials offer a unique opportunity to guide electronics industry towards an environmentally safe direction. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.