Poly(ionic liquid) dielectric for high performing P- and N-type single walled carbon nanotube transistors

• Published in: Flexible and printed electronics 2022-09, Vol.7 (3), p.34004
• Main Authors: Tousignant, Mathieu N, Ourabi, May, Niskanen, Jukka, Mirka, Brendan, Bodnaryk, William J, Adronov, Alex, Lessard, Benoît H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: poly(ionic liquid); polyelectrolyte; polymer dielectric; single walled carbon nanotubes; thin film transistors
• ISSN: 2058-8585; 2058-8585
• DOI: 10.1088/2058-8585/ac928f

There is an increasing demand for low-cost and high-performance electronics which has stimulated a need for new high-performance dielectric materials. We have developed a facile synthesis of poly(2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)azanide- ran -methyl methacrylate) (P(METATFSI-MMA)), a polymeric ionic liquid that can be used as a high-performance dielectric for semiconducting single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNTs) thin film transistors (TFTs). The P(METATFSI-MMA) polymer was synthesized at both 35 and 62 mol% of 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)azanide and produced p- and n-type devices that functioned under ambient conditions. These TFTs were then used to study the impact of electrochemical doping on the performance of SWCNT TFTs when switching from n-type, where an electrical double layer is formed, to p-type, where the TFSI − anions are free to interact with the SWCNTs. The TFTs operating in p-type had higher current on/off ratios and a larger transconductance than those operating in n-type, which is characteristic of electrochemically doped transistors. Furthermore, we tested the impact of operating frequency on device performance and discovered that decreasing the operating frequency of the TFTs resulted in a decreased hysteresis. The decrease in hysteresis was also observed to be more significant for the 35 mol% polymer.