Iontronics or controlling electronics via ionic motion and arrangement: fundamentals and applications

Iontronics targets the control of electrical properties and functionality of electronic devices by exploiting ionic motion and arrangement. It represents an interdisciplinary field encompassing electrochemistry, solid-state physics, energy storage, electronics and biological sciences. A key element driving the functionality of iontronic devices is the electric-double-layer (EDL) formed at the interface between an (electronically-insulating) ionic conductor and an electronic conductor such as an organic system or an inorganic semiconductor. In particular, the use of ionic liquids for the realization of EDL transistors (EDLTs) yields very high local electric fields and efficient carrier-density modulation. These approaches are widely exploited for the control of semiconductor nanostructure-based devices such as nanowire-FETs. In this case, the perspectives include fundamental studies such as carrier density induced phase-transitions and also applications in bioelectronics, light emission and detection at the nanoscale, bio-sensing.