Enzymatic sensing with organic electrochemical transistors

Abstract

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.