Liquid phase organic transistor sensor platform based on surface sorted semiconducting carbon nanotubes for small molecules and biological targets

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The objective of this program is to create a stable and robust electronic sensor platform capable of sensitive and selective detection of analytes in complex liquid media. This project will investigate the fabrication and functionalization strategies for sensors. This project will utilize numerous pathways of attaching receptors for small molecule and biological analytes on and around the nanotube surfaces. The approaches and methods proposed here are expected to lay the groundwork for future highly sensitive sensor technologies. The intellectual merit is to develop a technology that utilizes electrical engineering and materials science in the development of device architectures capable of functioning in complex media. The sensor platform is based on our unique solution-based method of "surface sorting" to create primarily semiconducting carbon nanotubes (scSWNTs) and our specially synthesized organic semiconductors. The project will enable a new approach to detection technology using organic electronics. The proposed studies will allow probing of biological processes as well as monitoring analyte concentrations in real time and within the required complex media. The proposed work is expected to provide a major step towards the incorporation of organic electronics within practical sensors. The broader impacts are the participation of community college students, graduate students and undergraduates, and the development of interdisciplinary research in the United States and to promote public understanding of the impact of organic electronics on industrial and economic development. The development of a highly sensitive, selective and robust sensing platform will have applications ranging from biomedical, environmental, defense to food security.