Matching P- and N-type Organic Electrochemical Transistor Performance Enables a Record High-gain Complementary Inverter.

The charge transport of channel materials in n-type organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) is greatly limited by the adverse effects of electrochemical doping, posing a long-standing puzzle for the community. Herein, an n-type conjugated polymer with glycolated side chains (n-PT3) is introduced. This polymer can adapt to electrochemical doping and create more organized nanostructures, mitigating the adverse effects of electrochemical doping. This unique characteristic gives n-PT3 excellent charge transport in the doped state and reversible ion storage, making it highly suitable as an n-type organic mixed ionic-electronic conducting (OMIEC) material. n-PT3 exhibits a high electron mobility of µ ≈ 1.0 cm ² V ^-1 s ^-1 and a figure of merit value of µC ^* ≈ 100 F cm ^-1 V ^-1 s ^-1 , representing one of the best results for n-type OMIEC materials. A new p-type OMIEC polymer has been synthesized as the channel material for constructing a complementary inverter to match the n-type OECT channel layer based on n-PT3. As a result, a voltage gain value of up to 307 VV ^-1 has been achieved, which is a record value for sub-1 V complementary inverters based on OECTs. This work offers valuable insights into designing electrochemical doping adaptive n-type OMIEC materials and fabricating high-gain organic complementary inverters.
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