Kirigami Graphene Transistors for Biological Sensing

As flexible, locally amplifying probes, graphene transistors have potential applications in biological sensing, particularly for read-out of extracellular potentials. We present here electrolyte-gating measurements of stretchable graphene transistors aimed at exploring this application. The graphene is etched into patterns inspired by the Japanese paper art of kirigami to permit in-plane stretching \footnote{Blees, M. K. et al. Graphene kirigami. Nature (2015).}. Using a technique developed in our group for manipulating these devices in solution, we can maneuver and stretch devices in an electrolyte solution while monitoring their electrical response. These devices show proximity-dependent gating to voltages on an additional small metal probe near the device, and we quantify the nature and sensitivity of this response. The flexibility of these devices makes them promising as “wearable” electronics for cells, and we present early results on interactions between graphene devices and cardiomyocyte cells.