Redox-active charge carriers of conducting polymers as a tuner of conductivity and its potential window
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Updated: May 8, 2026

Electroactive Polymer Nanoparticles Exhibiting Photothermal Properties
Published on: January 8, 2016
Han-Saem Park1, Seo-Jin Ko, Jeong-Seok Park
1i-School of Green Energy, UNIST, Ulsan 689-798, Korea.
Abstract:
Electric conductivity of conducting polymers has been steadily enhanced towards a level worthy of being called its alias, "synthetic metal". PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrene sulfonate)), as a representative conducting polymer, recently reached around 3,000 S cm(-1), the value to open the possibility to replace transparent conductive oxides. The leading strategy to drive the conductivity increase is solvent annealing in which aqueous solution of PEDOT:PSS is treated with an assistant solvent such as DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide). In addition to the conductivity enhancement, we found that the potential range in which PEDOT:PSS is conductive is tuned wider into a negative potential direction by the DMSO-annealing. Also, the increase in a redox-active fraction of charge carriers is proposed to be responsible for the enhancement of conductivity in the solvent annealing process.
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