Natural Material Inspired Organic Thin-Film Transistors for Biosensing: Properties and Applications
Xiaoying Ma, Ziling Jiang, Lanyi Xiang, Fengjiao Zhang
Abstract
Organic thin-film transistors, owing to their intrinsic signal transformation and amplification abilities, have emerged as one of the promising biosensing platforms in health monitoring and environmental detection. Natural materials are considered to be important candidates due to the inherent bioactivity, intrinsic biocompatibility, good solution processability, and prominent flexibility. In this paper, we briefly review the progress of organic transistor-based biosensors developed by natural materials and discuss how the physicochemical properties of these materials govern the sensing performance. First, we summarize the fundamental qualities of the natural origins enabled carrier transport, signal transition, mechanical deformation, biodegradability of organic transistors toward biosensing. Then, we highlight recent advances and strategies of how to integrate bionatural materials into wearable and implantable organic transistor-based biosensors. Finally, we propose the challenges and perspectives for the next-generation evaluation of (bionic-)natural species and their potential application in early disease diagnose, biomedical investigation, and smart systems.