https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2218380120
https://liu.se/en/news-item/varldens-forsta-tratransistor
Researchers at Linköping University and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed the world's first transistor made of wood. Their study, published in the journal PNAS, paves the way for further development of wood-based electronics and control of electronic plants.
We've come up with an unprecedented principle. Yes, the wood transistor is slow and bulky, but it does work, and has huge development potential," says Isak Engquist, senior associate professor at the Laboratory for Organic Electronics
In previous trials, transistors made of wood have been able to regulate ion transport only. And when the ions run out, the transistor stops functioning. The transistor developed by the Linköping researchers, however, can function continuously and regulate electricity flow without deteriorating.
The researchers used balsa wood to create their transistor, as the technology involved requires a grainless wood that is evenly structured throughout. They removed the lignin, leaving only long cellulose fibres with channels where the lignin had been.
These channels were then filled with a conductive plastic, or polymer, called PEDOT:PSS, resulting in an electrically conductive wood material.
The researchers used this to build the wood transistor and could show that it is able to regulate electric current and provide continuous function at a selected output level. It could also switch the power on and off, albeit with a certain delay – switching it off took about a second; on, about five seconds.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Tork on Tuesday May 02, @10:17PM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Tuesday May 02, @10:50PM (4 children)
From the article I read about it the wood is nothing but a structure to hold the electrochemical transistor goo. They could have just as easily made a transistor out of your mom's granny panties.
I just passed a drug test. My dealer has some explaining to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02, @11:19PM (1 child)
Very interesting that you seem to know a lot about my mom's granny panties. Care to splain?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02, @11:26PM
You're the only one who doesn't know all about your mom's granny panties. I think.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday May 03, @06:00PM
Would those have the same uniform even structure as the balsa wood, or would the gussets play havoc with the conductivity?
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Thursday May 04, @01:31AM
They repeatedly use the phrase "conductive wood" and try to imply that it's a wood transistor. The use the terms "gate", "drain", and "source" to imply that it's a field effect transistor. There's also some implication that conductive plastic is contributing to transistor action. Far down into the article they mention that pumping their conductive goo in and out of apertures has something to do with transistor action. The existence of true transistor action seems unlikely. They state a channel length of 1 millimeter, which would be destructive of transistor function as I understand it.
Imagine that you had a bowl with 2 electrodes and salt water in it, and varied the level of the salt water with a piezoelectric transducer to modulate conductivity between the electrodes. I think that's equivalent to what's going on here.