Piezopotential Gated Self-Biased Conducting Polymer-Based Flexible Transistor for Mechanical Energy Harvesting Device

A self-biased thin-film transistor (TFT) has been fabricated by using poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) as a conducting channel that works as an efficient mechanical energy harvesting device. The self-biasing of this top-gated TFT has been accomplished through the integration of two voltage sources within the device structure, which are essential for its operation. The LiF/Al and MoO₃/Ag electrodes serve as the source and drain, respectively, of this TFT that has a work-function difference of ∼-1.16 eV, which works as the drain bias (<i>V</i>_D). The poly(vinylidene fluoride-<i>co</i>-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) thin film that has been employed as a gate dielectric generates a piezo-potential due to the application of external pressure and works as gate bias (<i>V</i>_G) of this TFT. The unique feature of this device is its prolonged electrical power generation in DC form during the application of mechanical force that enables us to measure its mechanical-to-electrical power conversion energy accurately. The extracted power conversion efficiencies of hard and flexible (flat) substrate-based TFTs are 0.4 and 1.9%, respectively. Interestingly, the conversion efficiency of a flexible TFT increases with bending and can reach up to 33% which is unusually high for a mechanical energy harvesting device. In addition, electrical characterization of these devices shows transistor-like behavior with an On-Off ratio and subthreshold swing of 2 × 10² and 5.88 N/decade, respectively, for hard substrate, while on a flexible substrate, these values are 1 × 10⁴ and 1.35 N/decade, respectively.