Antonio Facchetti (Georgia Tech): "Doping of and monolithic integration with organic semiconductors"

Antonio Facchetti is a Hightower Chair in MSE at the Georgia Institute of Technology, co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Flexterra Corporation, an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University, and a Guest Professor at Linkoping University. He has published more than 570 research articles, 15 book chapters, and holds more than 120 patents. He received the ACS Award for Creative Invention, the Giulio Natta Gold Medal of the Italian Chemical Society, the team IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe Award, the corporate Flextech Award. He is a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, MRS, AAAS, PMSE, Kavli, and RSC.

Abstract: In this presentation two topics are discussed. First, we report a new approach to control the n-doping reaction of organic semiconductors using surface-functionalized gold nanoparticles (f-AuNPs) with alkylthiols acting as the catalyst only upon mild thermal activation. To demonstrate the versatility of this methodology, the reaction of the n-type dopant precursor N-DMBI-H with several semiconductors at different temperatures with/without f-AuNPs, vis-à-vis the unfunctionalized catalyst AuNP, is investigated by spectroscopic, morphological, charge transport, and kinetic measurements as well as, computationally, the thermodynamic of catalyst activation. Second, a new vertical organic electrochemical transistor (vOECT) enabling excellent and balanced behavior is presented demonstrating realization of ultra high-density (up to ~7.2M OECT/cm2) and mechanically flexible vOECT arrays and circuits. This result is achieved via facile and generalizable micropatterning of the semiconductor materials by electron-beam exposure. Furthermore, we demonstrate vertically stacked complementary logic circuits, including NOT, NAND, and NOR gates, which are essential components for digital processing and logic operations.