Wafer-scale patterning of reduced graphene oxide electrodes by transfer-and-reverse stamping for high performance OFETs

Abstract

A wafer-scale patterning method for solution-processed graphene electrodes, named the transfer-and-reverse stamping method, is universally applicable for fabricating source/drain electrodes of n- and p-type organic field-effect transistors with excellent performance. The patterning method begins with transferring a highly uniform reduced graphene oxide thin film, which is pre-prepared on a glass substrate, onto hydrophobic silanized (rigid/flexible) substrates. Patterns of the as-prepared reduced graphene oxide films are then formed by modulating the surface energy of the films and selectively delaminating the films using an oxygen-plasma-treated elastomeric stamp with patterns. Reduced graphene oxide patterns with various sizes and shapes can be readily formed onto an entire wafer. Also, they can serve as the source/drain electrodes for benchmark n- and p-type organic field-effect transistors with enhanced performance, compared to those using conventional metal electrodes. These results demonstrate the general utility of this technique. Furthermore, this simple, inexpensive, and scalable electrode-patterning-technique leads to assembling organic complementary circuits onto a flexible substrate successfully. Reproducible and effective wafer-scale patterning of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) electrodes by transfer-and-reverse stamping method is reported. The highly defined rGO micropatterns with various shapes are readily formed on rigid or flexible hydrophobized substrates and serve as the electrodes for high-performance n- and p-type OFETs and complementary inverters.