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Influence of pressure of nitrogen gas on structure and thermoelectric properties of acid-treated PEDOT:PSS films

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics volume 30, pages 13534–13542 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is the most commonly investigated conductive polymer due to its unique thermoelectric properties. Several post treatments using various acids have been reported to improve the thermoelectric properties of PEDOT:PSS. In most articles, however, only the role of acids on the structure and thermoelectric properties of PEDOT:PSS were reported. In this article, we report the major role of the pressure of nitrogen gas (N2) on the structure and thermoelectric properties of PEDOT:PSS after treatment with various acids at optimized temperatures. After treatment with acids followed by N2 gas-passing, electrical conductivity enhances significantly. Therefore, N2 gas-passing after acid treatments results in higher thermoelectric properties than other traditional acid treatment methods. The enhancement in electrical conductivity is attributed to the removal of insulating PSS and the conformational change of the PEDOT chain. Furthermore, the pressure of N2 is responsible for the additional conformation of PEDOT chain, favoring the linear orientation of the PEDOT structure and resulting in an improvement of the electrical conductivity.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Numbers 17K20065 and 18H01708). AKKK would like to thank financial support from Shenzhen Science, Technology and Innovation Commission (Basic Research Project (No. JCYJ20180305180645221) and Shenzhen Peacock Team Project (No. KQTD2016030111203005)).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan

    May Thu Zar Myint, Hirotaka Inoue, Takeshi Nishikawa, Yuta Nishina & Yasuhiko Hayashi

  2. Faculty of Advanced Materials Engineering, University of Technology (Yatanarpon Cyber City), Pyin Oo Lwin District, Mandalay, Myanmar

    May Thu Zar Myint

  3. Nagoya Industries Promotion Corporation, 3-4-41 Rokuban, Atsuta, Nagoya, 456-0058, Japan

    Susumu Ichimura

  4. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People’s Republic of China

    Aung Ko Ko Kyaw

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  1. May Thu Zar Myint
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Myint, M.T.Z., Inoue, H., Ichimura, S. et al. Influence of pressure of nitrogen gas on structure and thermoelectric properties of acid-treated PEDOT:PSS films. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 30, 13534–13542 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01721-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01721-2