pH sensing properties of graphene solution-gated field-effect transistors

The use of graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition to fabricate solution-gated field-effect transistors (SGFET) on different substrates is reported. SGFETs were fabricated using graphene transferred on poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylate) substrate in order to study the influence of using a flexible substrate for pH sensing. Furthermore, in order to understand the influence of fabrication-related residues on top of the graphene surface, a fabrication method was developed for graphene-on-SiO2 SGFETs that enables to keep a graphene surface completely clean of any residues at the end of the fabrication. We were then able to demonstrate that the electrical response of the SGFET devices to pH does not depend either on the specific substrate on which graphene is transferred or on the existence of a moderate amount of fabrication-related residues on top of the graphene surface. These considerations simplify and ease the design and fabrication of graphene pH sensors, paving the way for developing low c...