How big molecules could make small electronics smarter and greener

Small changes to the materials and structure of the electronic devices we rely on daily - from televisions and smartwatches to smoke detectors - could dramatically improve their efficiency and sustainability.

Because these devices rely on carefully arranged layers to conduct electricity, adjusting their composition at the microscopic level may be key in creating electronics that use less power and support more sustainable designs. By changing these layers, researchers hope to vastly improve the function of devices — particularly smaller, wearable, and biodegradable ones.

Benoit Lessard’s research group at the University of Ottawa is exploring different materials that can serve as the base layer for these conducting stacks, known as thin-film transistors.

“It's really important to keep in mind the bottom layer when you put the next layer on top, because it's going to influence how that next layer organizes, how those molecules line up,” said Lessard.

These improvements can even open new uses for electronics, such as reducing harm from street drugs. Lessard’s group is developing sensors that can use electrochemical reactions to determine not just which substances are present in a sample, but the quantity of each.

Current tests for drugs like fentanyl are “useful for telling you a yes or no,” Lessard said. But knowing exactly how much fentanyl is present in a sample would be extremely helpful both for drug users and the healthcare workers treating them.

Most recently, Lessard’s group used the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan to better understand how the layers of a thin-film transistor assemble atop different poly(ionic) liquids -- electrically charged substances made of large molecules. Poly(ionic) liquids combine the strength and ease of handling of traditional polymers but with higher conductivity and lower risk of a leak of flammable or toxic material associated with simpler ionic liquids.

One exciting finding, Lessard said, was that making changes to the base layer could significantly decrease the amount of power needed to run wearable devices. The team published their results in the journal RSC Applied Interfaces.

That efficiency is crucial for wearables, Lessard noted. “You don't want to need a car battery to power them.”

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Ronnasi, Bahar, Nicolas Ledos, Benjamin King, and Benoît H. Lessard. "Polymerized ionic liquid dielectrics tune molecular orientation and operating voltage in silicon phthalocyanine OTFTs." RSC Applied Interfaces (2026). https://doi.org/10.1039/d6lf00236f 

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