UV-Assisted Annealing Effect on the Performance of an Electrolyte-Gated Transistor Based on Inkjet Printed ZnO Nanoparticles Blended With Zinc Nitrate

Abstract

Solution-processed devices are in general compatible with flexible and conformable electronics. However, some promising materials needs to be processed at high temperatures, which limits the applications and the use of different substrates. Among these materials we can highlight zinc oxide (ZnO), a semiconductor that stands out for transistors applications and is, in general, obtained at temperatures around 300 °C-400 °C. Here, we reported the combination of annealing at 150 °C, ultraviolet (UV) treatment and blending of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) with zinc nitrate and urea as a strategy to fabricate an inkjet printed electrolyte-gated transistor (EGT) with reduced temperature and improved performance, including a significant mobility improvement to 0.21 cm²/V·s, operating below 2 V bias, which is around 460% higher than the mobility of the EGT fabricated purely with ZnO-NPs.