Amorphous chitosan nanoparticles (AChNPs) are extracted from marine crab shells for use as the active semiconductor material in paper-based electronics. The I–V characteristics of AChNPs exhibit an electron-driven rectifying behaviour at Schottky junctions. Additionally, when used in metal – semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs), the AChNPs demonstrate an amplification output spanning three orders of magnitude and current modulation with an on/off current ratio of approximately 17,000. Hall effect measurements indicate an n -type semiconductor with a carrier concentration of 8.55 × 10 10 /cm 3 , which corresponds to a mobility of 15.27 cm 2 /Vs and an electric resistivity of 4.79 × 10 6 Ωcm at 298 K. The g value of the electron spin resonance (ESR) peak of AChNPs confirms that the electrons are generated from the aminyl N*-H radical, and photoemission yield spectroscopy reveals a gap energy of 5.21 eV. The proposed diode and MESFET offer substantial promise for future applications of flexible, renewable, and biodegradable paper-based electronic devices with energy storage properties.
Fukuhara et al. (Sun,) studied this question.