In recent years, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have emerged as attractive devices for a variety of applications, particularly in the area of sensing. While the electrical characteristics of OECTs are analogous to those of conventional organic field effect transistors, appropriate models for OECTs have not yet been developed. In particular, little is known about the transient characteristics of OECTs, which are determined by a complex interplay between ionic and electronic motion. In this paper a simple model is presented that reproduces the steady‐state and transient response of OECTs by considering these devices in terms of an ionic and an electronic circuit. A simple analytical expression is derived that can be used to fit steady‐state OECT characteristics. For the transient regime, comparison with experimental data allowed an estimation of the hole mobility in poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrene sulfonate). This work paves the way for rational optimization of OECTs.

Since their development in the 1980's organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have attracted a great deal of interest for biosensor applications. Coupled with the current proliferation of organic semiconductor technologies, these devices have the potential to revolutionize healthcare by making point-of-care and home-based medical diagnostics widely available. Unfortunately, their mechanism of operation is poorly understood, and this hinders further development of this important technology. In this paper glucose sensors based on OECTs and the redox enzyme glucose oxidase are investigated. Through appropriate scaling of the transfer characteristics at various glucose concentrations, a universal curve describing device operation is shown to exist. This result elucidates the underlying device physics and establishes a connection between sensor response and analyte concentration. This improved understanding paves the way for rational optimization of enzymatic sensors based on organic electrochemical transistors.

The authors use bilayer lipid membranes ͑BLMs͒ as a means to control the gating of organic electrochemical transistors ͑OECTs͒. Upon formation of a high quality BLM, the gating of an OECT can be fully suppressed. Gating is restored when gramicidin ion channels are incorporated into the BLM. The valence-dependent permeability of gramicidin enables these devices to discriminate between monovalent and divalent ions. This work shows that ion channels can be effectively employed to control the selectivity of organic transistor-based sensors.

We have used matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry and micro-Raman spectroscopy to identify a quenching species that is formed during operation of [Ru(bpy)3]2+ electroluminescent devices. We identify this performance-degrading product to be the oxo-bridged dimer [(bpy)2(H2O)RuORu(OH2)(bpy)2]4+ and show this dimer to be an effective quencher of device luminescence. This work is the first to detect a specific chemical degradation product formed during iTMC OLED operation.