Synthesis and characterization of an ester-terminated organic semiconductor for ethanol vapor detection

• An organic-field effect transistor (OFET) based on an organic molecule with an ester end group (ANOAT) was fabricated.
• The OFET device was tested in a sensor for the detection of ethanol vapor.
• The OFET device based on ANOAT was found to be sensitive to ethanol vapor.
• We believe the changes in the electrical performance of OFET are due to the interactions between ethanol and ANOAT.

An organic-field effect transistor (OFET) based on a newly synthesized organic molecule with an ester end group (ANOAT) was tested in a sensor for the detection of ethanol vapor. The linearly fused acene in ANOAT forms channel layers in the OFET and the ester end group of ANOAT interacts with ethanol vapor. The ethanol sensing ability of the ANOAT-based OFET derives not from changes in the crystalline structure of the organic semiconductor but from the interaction between ethanol vapor and the ester end group, which we demonstrated by using FT-IR analysis, computational modeling, X-ray scattering, and AFM analysis.

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