A Single n-type Semiconducting Polymer-Based Photo-Electrochemical Transistor

Conjugated polymer films that can conduct ionic and electronic charges are central to building soft electronic sensors and actuators. Despite the possible interplay between light absorption and mixed conductivity of these materials in aqueous biological media, no polymer film has ever been used to realize a solar-switchable organic bioelectronic circuit relying on a fully reversible, redox reaction-free mechanism. Here we show that light absorbed by an electron and cation-transporting polymer film reversibly modulates its electrochemical potential and conductivity in an aqueous electrolyte, leveraged to design an n-type photo-electrochemical transistor (n-OPECT). We generate transistor output characteristics by solely varying the intensity of light that hits the n-type polymeric gate electrode, emulating the gate voltage-controlled modulation of the polymeric channel current. The micron-scale n-OPECT shows a high signal-to-noise ratio and an excellent sensitivity to low light intensities. We demonstrate three direct applications of the n-OPECT, i.e., a photoplethysmogram recorder, a light-controller inverter circuit, and a light-gated artificial synapse, underscoring the suitability of this platform for a myriad of biomedical applications that involve light intensity changes.