Transistors printed from 2D graphene nanosheets

Working with partners from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, the AMBER team was able to develop an all-printed nanosheet transistor that was fully functional. The researchers used graphene nanosheets as electrodes, in combination with 2D tungsten diselenide and boron nitride, which acted respectively as the transistor’s channel and separator. According to the team, the technique could be used to print smart labels for the food and pharmaceutical industries.

"In the future, printed devices will be incorporated into even the most mundane objects such as labels, posters and packaging,” said AMBER’s Professor Jonathan Coleman, from Trinity's School of Physics.

“Printed electronic circuitry (constructed from the devices we have created) will allow consumer products to gather, process, display and transmit information: for example, milk cartons could send messages to your phone warning that the milk is about to go out-of-date.”

The research is based on Coleman’s previous scalable method of producing 2D nanomaterials such as graphene, a process that has been licensed to manufacturers such as Samsung. Printed electronics are a long way off the levels of performance seen in advanced transistors, but Coleman believes his research could help close the gap, and that nanomaterials could also help reduce the cost of printed electronics.