• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.434.2-434.2
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• 2014

We observe enhanced pH response of solution-gated field-effect transistors (SG-FET) having 1D-2D hybrid channel of vertical grown ZnO nanorods grown on CVD graphene (Gr). In recent years, SG-FET based on Gr has received a lot of attention for biochemical sensing applications, because Gr has outstanding properties such as high sensitivity, low detection limit, label-free electrical detection, and so on. However, low-defect CVD Gr has hardly pH responsive due to lack of hydroxyl group on Gr surface. On the other hand, ZnO, consists of stable wurtzite structure, has attracted much interest due to its unique properties and wide range of applications in optoelectronics, biosensors, medical sciences, etc. Especially, ZnO were easily grown as vertical nanorods by hydrothermal method and ZnO nanostructures have higher sensitivity to environments than planar structures due to plentiful hydroxyl group on their surface. We prepared for ZnO nanorods vertically grown on CVD Gr (ZnO nanorods/Gr hybrid channel) and to fabricate SG-FET subsequently. We have analyzed hybrid channel FETs showing transfer characteristics similar to that of pristine Gr FETs and charge neutrality point (CNP) shifts along proton concentration in solution, which can determine pH level of solution. Hybrid channel SG-FET sensors led to increase in pH sensitivity up to 500%, compared to pristine Gr SG-FET sensors. We confirmed plentiful hydroxyl groups on ZnO nanorod surface interact with protons in solution, which causes shifts of CNP. The morphology and electrical characteristics of hybrid channel SG-FET were characterized by FE-SEM and semiconductor parameter analyzer, respectively. Sensitivity and sensing mechanism of ZnO nanorods/Gr hybrid channel FET will be discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.561-561
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• 2012

Graphene, two dimensional single layer of carbon atoms, has tremendous attention due to its superior property such as fast electron mobility, high thermal conductivity and optical transparency, and also found many applications such as field-effect transistors (FET), energy storage and conversion, optoelectronic device, electromechanical resonators and chemical sensors. Several techniques have been developed to form the graphene. Especially chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a promising process for the large area graphene. For the electrically isolated devices, the graphene should be transfer to insulated substrate from Cu or Ni. However, transferred graphene has serious drawback due to remaining polymeric residue during transfer process which induces the poor device characteristics by impurity scattering and it interrupts the surface functionalization for the sensor application. In this study, we demonstrate the characteristics of solution-gated FET depending on the removal of polymeric residues. The solution-gated FET is operated by the modulation of the channel conductance by applying a gate potential from a reference electrode via the electrolyte, and it can be used as a chemical sensor. The removal process was achieved by several solvents during the transfer of CVD graphene from a copper foil to a substrate and additional annealing process with H2/Ar environments was carried out. We compare the properties of graphene by Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy(AFM), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. Effects of residual polymeric materials on the device performance of graphene FET will be discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.117-122
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• 2016

Recently, the detection of pH with real-time and in vivo has been focal pointed in the environmental or medical fields. In this work, we developed the pH sensor using graphene sheet. Graphene has high biocompatibility. We fabricated flexible solution-gated field-effect transistors (SGFETs) on graphene sheet transferred on the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate to detect pH in electrolyte solution. The gate length was $500{\mu}m$ and the gate width was 8 mm. We evaluated the current-voltage (I-V) transfer characteristics of graphene SGFETs in pH solution. The drain-source current ($I_{DS}$) and the gate-source voltage ($V_{GS}$) curves of graphene SGFETs were depended on pH value. The Dirac point of graphene SGFETs linearly shifted to the positive direction about 19.32 mV/pH depending on the pH value in electrolyte solution.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.195-195
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• 2012

Recently, graphene based solution-gated field-effect transistors (SGFETs) have been received a great attention in biochemical sensing applications. Graphene and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) possess various advantages such as high sensitivity, low detection limit, label-free electrical detection, and ease of fabrication due to their 2D nature and large sensing area compared to 1D nanomaterials- based nanobiosensors. Therefore, graphene or RGO -based SGFET is a good potential candidate for sensitive detection of protons (H+ ions) which can be applied as the transducer in various enzymatic or cell-based biosensing applications. However, reports on detection of H+ ions using graphene or RGO based SGFETs have been still limited. According to recent reports, clean graphene grown by CVD or exfoliation is electrochemically insensitive to changes of H+ concentration in solution because its surface does not have terminal functional groups that can sense the chemical potential change induced by varying surface charges of H+ on CVD graphene surface. In this work, we used RGO -SGFETs having oxygen-containing functional groups such as hydroxyl (OH) groups that effectively interact with H+ ions for expectation of increasing pH sensitivity. Additionally, we also investigate RGO based SGFETs for bio-sensing applications. Hydroloytic enzymes were introduced for sensing of biomolecular interaction on the surface of RGO -SGFET in which enzyme and substrate are acetylcholinesterase (AchE) and acetylcholine (Ach), respectively. The increase in H+ generated through enzymatic reaction of hydrolysis of Ach by AchE immobilized on RGO channel in SGFET could be monitored by the change in the drain-source current (Ids).