Organic thin-film transistors and related devices in life and health monitoring

The early determination of disease-related biomarkers can significantly improve the survival rate of patients.Thus,a series of explorations for new diagnosis technologies,such as optical and electrochemical methods,have been devoted to life and health monitoring.Organic thin-film transistor(OTFT),as a state-of-the-art nano-sensing technology,has attracted significant attention from construction to application owing to the merits of being label-free,low-cost,facial,and rapid detection with multi-parameter responses.Nevertheless,interference from non-specific adsorption is inevitable in complex biological samples such as body liquid and exhaled gas,so the reliability and accuracy of the biosensor need to be further improved while ensuring sensitivity,selectivity,and stability.Herein,we overviewed the composition,mechanism,and construction strategies of OTFTs for the practical determination of disease-related biomarkers in both body fluids and exhaled gas.The results show that the realization of bio-inspired applications will come true with the rapid development of high-effective OTFTs and related devices.

Highly responsive biosensors based on organic field-effect transistors under light irradiation

High responsivity and sensitivity play essential roles in the development of organic field-effect transistors(OFETs)-based biosensors with regard to biological detections,particularly for disease diagnosis.Nonetheless,how to design a biosensor which improves these two outstanding properties while achieving low cost,easy processing,and time saving is a daunting challenge.Herein,a novel biosensor based on OFET with copolymer thin film,whose surface is illuminated with a suitable light beam is reported.This film can be used as both an organic semiconductor material and as a photoelectric active material.Due to amplification of signals as a result of the film’s strong response to light,the biosensor possesses higher responsivity and sensitivity compared to dark condition and even realizes a maximum responsivity of up to 10^(3)for alpha-fetoprotein(AFP)detection.The simple combination of light and transistor builds a bridge between photoelectric effect and biological system.In addition,the emergence of more excellent photoelectric active materials is expected to pave a way for ultrasensitive bio-chemical diagnostic tools.