Self-Organization of Ions at the Interface between Graphene and Ionic Liquid DEME-TFSI

Electrochemical effects manifest as nonlinear responses to an applied electric field in electrochemical devices, and are linked intimately to the molecular orientation of ions in the electric double layer (EDL). Herein, we probe the origin of the electrochemical effect using a double-gate graphene field effect transistor (GFET) of ionic liquid N,N-diethyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl)-N-methylammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (DEME-TFSI) top-gate, paired with a ferroelectric Pb_0.92La_0.08Zr_0.52Ti_0.48O₃ (PLZT) back-gate of compatible gating efficiency. The orientation of the interfacial molecular ions can be extracted by measuring the GFET Dirac point shift, and their dynamic response to ultraviolet-visible light and a gate electric field was quantified. We have observed that the strong electrochemical effect is due to the TFSI anions self-organizing on a treated GFET surface. Moreover, a reversible order-disorder transition of TFSI anions self-organized on the GFET surface can be triggered by illuminating the interface with ultraviolet-visible light, revealing that it is a useful method to control the surface ion configuration and the overall performance of the device.