Monday, June 16, 2008
Room 1 (McKimmon Conference Center)
234

Polyelectrolyte Diodes and Transistors Based on Aqueous Ionic Gel Junctions

Suk Tai Chang, Oliver J. Cayre, Hyung Jun Koo, and Orlin D. Velev. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Electronic components based on organic materials are of interest because they possess a number of potential advantages over traditional silicone-based junctions. Here, we demonstrated unidirectional ionic current flow across a fixed junction between two aqueous agarose gel phases containing oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. The promising feature of this new type of rectifying junction is that it is operates on the basis of water-borne ions. We show that the non-linear current response of the interface between the cationic and anionic gels originates directly from anisotropy in the mobile charges within the system. The current densities in the forward bias and current rectifying ratios in these gel diodes are higher or comparable to those using ionic carries and junctions built from conductive polymers. The devices are extremely simple, inexpensive and possess good long-term stability in DC or AC conduction mode. We also demonstrated polyelectrolyte bipolar transistor by placing one type of polyelectrolyte gel between agarose gels containing oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. Such soft devices based on aqueous gel phases could be used in numerous applications requiring flexible and biocompatible electronic components.