High-performance flexible fully-printed all-carbon thin film transistors and ultrasensitive NH3 sensors

In this paper, we developed a new method to construct flexible fully-printed all-carbon thin film transistors (TFTs) with excellent properties and highly sensitive ammonia (NH3) sensors via aerosol jet printing. Here, sorted semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (sc-SWCNTs), carboxyl-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (P-3 SWCNTs) and printed ion gels were chosen as channel materials, printed source, drain and side-gate electrodes, and dielectric layers. Flexible printed side-gate TFTs showed high on/off ratios (similar to 10(6)), good mobility (up to 9.8 cm(2) V-1 s(-1)), low hysteresis and small subthreshold swings (similar to 80 mV dec(-1)) at gate voltages of +/- 1 V. As-prepared TFTs exhibited an extremely high response to NH3 (up to 346.73% within 11 s) with good selectivity, ultralow limit of detection (LOD) (21.35 ppb) and low power consumption (0.49 nW) at room temperature due to the strong adsorption and enrichment of NH3 gas by ionic liquids (ILs) in the ion gels and the signal amplification of printed ion-gel TFTs. Furthermore, all devices can withstand 10 000 times bending with a radius of 5 mm, displaying good mechanical flexibility due to the high mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes.

Automated summary

In this study, a new method was developed to construct flexible fully-printed all-carbon thin film transistors with excellent properties and highly sensitive ammonia sensors via aerosol jet printing. The TFTs exhibited high performance, stability, and durability, with high response to NH3 and low power consumption due to the unique materials used.