Polylactic acid as a biodegradable material for all-solution-processed organic electronic devices

In this paper we report on the fabrication of spin-coated biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) thin films to be used as substrates for the realisation of all-solution-processed organic electronic devices. The full mechanical and electrical characterisation of these substrates shows that they exhibit good mechanical and dielectric properties and are therefore suitable for the fabrication of disposable electronics. To demonstrate practically the functionality of such PLA thin films, organic electronic devices were realised on the top of them, exclusively by means of solution-process fabrication techniques and in particular inkjet-printing. Also, a photonic curing procedure is here presented as a means for sintering the conductive inks without heating up the PLA substrates. Two types of organic transistors were fabricated on the top of PLA: organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), where the PLA film was used not only as a substrate but also as the gate dielectric, and all-inkjet-printed organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). The second typology of transistors exhibited one of the highest transconductance reported so far in the literature (up to 2.75 mS). This study opens an avenue for the fabrication of disposable, low-cost organic electronic devices. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.