Cation-Dependent Mixed Ionic-Electronic Transport in a Perylenediimide Small-Molecule Semiconductor.

A rapidly growing interest in organic bioelectronic applications has spurred the development of a wide variety of organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors. While these new mixed conductors have enabled the community to interface organic electronics with biological systems and efficiently transduce biological signals (ions) into electronic signals, the current materials selection does not offer sufficient selectivity towards specific ions of biological relevance without the use of auxiliary components such as ion-selective membranes. Here, we present the molecular design of an n-type (electron-transporting) perylene diimide semiconductor material decorated with pendant oligoether groups to facilitate interactions with cations such as Na and K. Using the cyclic 15-crown-5 oligoether motif, we find that the resulting mixed conductor PDI-crown displays a strong dependence on the size of the electrolyte cation when tested in an organic electrochemical transistor configuration. In stark contrast to the low current response on the order of 1 μA observed with aqueous sodium chloride, a nearly 200-fold increase in current is observed with aqueous potassium chloride. We ascribe the high selectivity to extended molecular aggregation and therefore efficient charge transport in the presence of K due to a favourable sandwich-like structure between two adjacent 15-crown-5 motifs and the potassium ion.