nATuRE CommunICATIons | 2:476 | DoI: 10.1038/ncomms1489 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications
© 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
Received 13 Apr 2011 | Accepted 22 Aug 2011 | Published 20 sep 2011 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1489
In nature, electrical signalling occurs with ions and protons, rather than electrons. Artificial
devices that can control and monitor ionic and protonic currents are thus an ideal means for
interfacing with biological systems. Here we report the first demonstration of a biopolymer
protonic field-effect transistor with proton-transparent PdHx contacts. In maleic-chitosan
nanofibres, the flow of protonic current is turned on or off by an electrostatic potential applied to
a gate electrode. The protons move along the hydrated maleicchitosan hydrogen-bond network
with a mobility of ~4.9×10-3
. This study introduces a new class of biocompatible
solid-state devices, which can control and monitor the flow of protonic current. This represents
a step towards bionanoprotonics.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. 2
Department of Electrical Engineering,