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Updated: Oct 27, 2026

Development and Functionalization of Electrolyte-Gated Graphene Field-Effect Transistor for Biomarker Detection
Published on: February 1, 2022
Electrical signal transmission across electrolyte junctions separated by atomically-thin graphene
Canbin Wang1, Mingyang Xia1, Jiaqi Zhai1
1State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (iChEM), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
Abstract:
Signal transmission across membranes is usually mediated by the permeation of molecular species. Here we show that atomically thin graphene crystals, although impermeable to any ions or molecules, can transmit interfacial electrical potentials across electrolyte junctions without significant disruption. In monolayer graphene, applying an electrical potential at one graphene-electrolyte interface induces a similar responsive potential at the opposite side, with the magnitude governed by ionic sizes. By increasing the number of graphene layers, the response decays and vanishes at ~ 5 layers. Theoretical analysis attributes these observations to graphene's tunable charge-carrier concentration combined with its extreme thinness. This capability of transmitting activation stimuli without mass transport may find its applications in artificial synapses and other neuromorphic junctions.
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