A miniaturized organic photoelectrochemical transistor aptasensor based on nanorod arrays toward high-sensitive T-2 toxin detection in milk samples

•Channel current is 100 times higher than photocurrent.•This OPECT aptasensor amplifies the gate signal output 800 times through channel.•The introduction light avoids using gate voltages further reducing power consumption.•This OPECT aptasensor realizes highly sensitive detection for T-2 toxin in milk samples. Detection of T-2 toxin is of great significance to environment and human health, as T-2 toxin is one of the main toxins that contaminate crops, stored grain and other food. Herein, a zero-gate-bias organic photoelectrochemical transistor (OPECT) sensor was proposed based on nanoelectrode arrays as gate photoactive materials which can result in the accumulation of photovoltage and preferable capacitance leading to better sensitivity of the OPECT. For comparison, the channel current of OPECT was 100 times higher than photocurrent of conventional photoelectrochemical (PEC) attributing to remarkable signal amplification of OPECT. It was also found that the detection limit of OPECT aptasensor was as low as 28.8 pg/L, lower than 0.34 ng/L of the conventional PEC method, further indicating the advantage of the OPECT devices in T-2 toxin determination. This research has been successfully applied in real sample detection which provided a general platform of OPECT for food safety analysis.