Directly patternable, highly conducting polymers for broad applications in organic electronics.
Postdeposition solvent annealing of water-dispersible conducting polymers induces dramatic structural rearrangement and improves electrical conductivities by more than two orders of magnitude. We attain electrical conductivities in excess of 50 S/cm when polyaniline films are exposed to dichloroacetic acid. Subjecting commercially available poly(ethylene dioxythiophene) to the same treatment yields a conductivity as high as 250 S/cm. This process has enabled the wide incorporation of conducting polymers in organic electronics; conducting polymers that are not typically processable can now be deposited from solution and their conductivities subsequently enhanced to practical levels via a simple and straightforward solvent annealing process. The treated conducting polymers are thus promising alternatives for metals as source and drain electrodes in organic thin-film transistors as well as for transparent metal oxide conductors as anodes in organic solar cells and light-emitting diodes.
Yoo
Joung Eun
JE
Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, A215 Engineering Quadrangle, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Lee
Kwang Seok
KS
Garcia
Andres
A
Tarver
Jacob
J
Gomez
Enrique D
ED
Baldwin
Kimberly
K
Sun
Yangming
Y
Meng
Hong
H
Nguyen
Thuc-Quyen
TQ
Loo
Yueh-Lin
YL