Synthesis of highly conductive EDOT copolymer films via oxidative chemical in situ polymerization

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)s (PEDOT) represent a class of conjugated polymers that can be potentially used as an electrode material for flexible organic electronics due to their superior conductivity and transparency. In this study, we demonstrate that the conductivity of a PEDOT containing copolymer film can be further enhanced by the oxidative chemical in situ copolymerization of a liquid film spun coated from monomer mixture (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) and 3-thienyl ethoxybutanesulfonate (TEBS)), oxidant (iron(III) p-toluenesulfonate (Fe(OTs)(3))), weak base (imidazole), and solvent (methanol). We investigated that the effect of the processing parameters such as the molar ratios TEBS/EDOT, IM/EDOT, and Fe(OTs)(3)/EDOT on the surface morphology, optical property, and the conductivity of the resulting copolymer films. These parameters have been optimized to achieve conductivities for the copolymer films as high as 170 S/cm compared with a conductivity of 30 S/cm for the pure PEDOT film synthesized using the same fabrication method. This conductivity enhancement for the copolymer films was found to be resulted from the fact that the addition of TEBS monomer reduces the copolymerization rate, leading to the formation of much more uniform film surface without defects and copolymers of higher molecular weight which increase the conductivity of the resulting copolymer film. The composition of two monomers in the copolymer film is not related to the variation of conductivity. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.