Improved Performance p-type Polymer (P3HT) / n-type Nanotubes (WS2) Electrolyte Gated Thin-Film Transistor

This work decribes the enhancement of the electrical figures of merit of an Electrolyte Gated Thin-Film Transistor (EG-TFT) comprising a nanocomposite of n-type tungsten disulfide (WS2) nanotubes (NTs) dispersed in a regio-regular p-type poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) polymeric matrix. P3HT/WS2 nanocomposites loaded with different concentrations of NTs, serving as EG-TFTs electronic channel materials have been studied and the formulation has been optimized. The resulting EG-TFTs figures of merit (field-effect mobility, threshold voltage and on-off ratio) are compared with those of the device comprising a bare P3HT semiconducting layer. The optimized P3HT/WS2 nanocomposite, comprising a 60% by weight of NTs, results in an improvement of all the elicited figures of merit with a striking ten-fold increase in the field-effect mobility and the on/off ratio along with a sizable enhancement of the in-water operational stability of the device.