Scattering Studies on Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) Polystyrenesulfonate in the Presence of Ionic Liquids

Published

December 22, 2015

Author(s)

Ryan J. Murphy, Kathleen Weigandt, David Uhrig, Ahmed Alsayed, Chantal Badre, Larry Hough, Murugappan Muthukumar

Abstract

The demand for lower-cost and flexible electronics has driven industry to develop alternative transport electrode (TE) materials to replace Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). ITO is the benchmark TE on the market, but its high cost and low flexibility limits it for use in future technologies. Recent work has shown the combination of the conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) with the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetracyanoborate (EMIM:TCB) is a viable ITO replacement. The work presented here investigates the nature of the interaction between PEDOT:PSS and EMIM:TCB in the solution state. A combination of scattering methods are used to illustrate a novel, multi-length scale model of this system. At length scales larger than 300nm PEODT:PSS adopts a microgel-like structure, and below 300nm the system adopts an entangled polyelectrolyte mesh structure. As EMIM:TCB is added, the microgel interior adopts a more neutral polymer mesh structure as EMIM:TCB concentration is increased.

Citation

Macromolecules

Volume

48

Issue

24

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Murphy, R. , Weigandt, K. , Uhrig, D. , Alsayed, A. , Badre, C. , Hough, L. and Muthukumar, M. (2015), Scattering Studies on Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) Polystyrenesulfonate in the Presence of Ionic Liquids, Macromolecules, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=919640 (Accessed October 10, 2025)