Secondary dopants modified PEDOT-sulfonated poly(imide)s for high-temperature range application

Abstract

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) was polymerized using sulfonated poly(amic acid)s templates (SPAA1 and SPAA2) by batch operation. The new method was invented to enhance conductivities (ca. 100 - to 2000-fold) and with less reaction time from previous work (7 days vs. 3 days). Moreover, to increase the conductivity, many dopants were introduced as secondary doping compared with DMF, D-sorbitol, and surfynol that were previously used. After annealing at 180°C for 10 min, PEDOT-SPAA1 and PEDOT-SPAA2 doped with benzo-1,4-dioxan and quinoxaline showed the increase in conductivity by higher percentage than any other systems, especially doped with D-sorbitol and surfynol. These showed the promising tendency to develop the annealing activated superior conductivity materials after further modifying the conducting film forming processes. However, PEDOT-SPAAs doped with benzo-1,4-dioxan, imidazole and quinoxaline via annealed at 180°C for 10 min were found to be more conductive than doped with DMF, but still lower conductive than doped with D-sorbitol and surfynol. In terms of particle size, the stable aqueous dispersions of conducting polymers prepared were comparable to polystyrene sulfonate template.