The World's First Wood Transistor
looorg writes:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218380120
https://liu.se/en/news-item/varldens-forsta-tratransistor
Researchers at Linkoping University and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed the world's first transistor made of wood. Their study, published in the journal PNAS, paves the way for further development of wood-based electronics and control of electronic plants.
We've come up with an unprecedented principle. Yes, the wood transistor is slow and bulky, but it does work, and has huge development potential," says Isak Engquist, senior associate professor at the Laboratory for Organic Electronics
In previous trials, transistors made of wood have been able to regulate ion transport only. And when the ions run out, the transistor stops functioning. The transistor developed by the Linkoping researchers, however, can function continuously and regulate electricity flow without deteriorating.
The researchers used balsa wood to create their transistor, as the technology involved requires a grainless wood that is evenly structured throughout. They removed the lignin, leaving only long cellulose fibres with channels where the lignin had been.
These channels were then filled with a conductive plastic, or polymer, called PEDOT:PSS, resulting in an electrically conductive wood material.
The researchers used this to build the wood transistor and could show that it is able to regulate electric current and provide continuous function at a selected output level. It could also switch the power on and off, albeit with a certain delay - switching it off took about a second; on, about five seconds.
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