Modification of Novel Conductive PEDOT:Sulfonated Polyimide Nano-Thin Films by Anionic Surfactant and Poly(vinyl alcohol) for Electronic Applications

Conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):sulfonated polyimide (PEDOT:SPI) nanoscale thin films were successfully developed by addition of anionic surfactant and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) for potential application in electronic devices. In this work, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant was introduced into PEDOT:SPI aqueous suspensions to improve the dispersion stability of the particles in water, leading to high transparency and low contact angle of PEDOT:SPI thin films. All of the conducting polymer thin films showed high transparency of more than 85% transmission. Conductivity enhancement and good film-formation properties of PEDOT:SPI were achieved by adding various amounts of PVA to each polymer aqueous suspension because of the resulting conformational changes. The highest conductivity of 0.134 S/cm was achieved at 0.08 wt.% PVA in PEDOT:SPI2/SDS/PVA film, increased by a factor of 3.5 compared with the original material. In addition, PVA also improved the thermal stability of the conductive films, as verified by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The interactions between conducting polymers, PVA, and SDS surfactant affecting nano-thin film properties were revealed and investigated. Moreover, the interactions between SDS and SPI were proven to be different from those between SDS and poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS) in conventional PEDOT:PSS solutions.