Alkoxy-substituted polyterthiophene thin-film-transistors as alcohol sensors

Abstract Dipentoxy substituted polyterthiophene thin films are proposed as active layer in organic thin-film-transistor device configuration. Results on their use also as alcohol sensing layers both in a thin-film-transistor (TFT) and in a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) configuration are presented. Responses to 1-hexanol and ethanol molecules are very fast, extremely reversible and the best extrapolated sensitivities are as good as 0.7 ng/ppm. Device performance and sensing mechanisms are also discussed.