Irreversible Degradation Behaviors of an Electrolyte-gated Polyaniline (PANI) Nanowire Field-effect Transistor

We studied the degradation properties of a conducing polyaniline (PANI) nanowire field-effect transistor (FET) operating in a three-probe FET structure in an electrolyte solution on a SiO(2)/Si substrate. We observed that the current-voltage characteristics of an electrolyte-gated PANI nanowire FET swept for 13 cycles in a cyclic potential mode exhibited clear irreversible degradation, as shown by the drain current-gate voltage curves. We propose that the degradation of the PANI nanowire FET, which indicates a conductance loss and gain in the oxidation and reduction modes, respectively, is attributable to the intensity of Coulombic repulsion in the cycle mode.