Innovative elastic and flexible conductive PEDOT:PSS composite films prepared by introducing soft latexes

Innovative elastic and flexible conductive composite materials PEDOT:PSS/P(BA-St) and PEDOT:PSS-PBA were prepared by two approaches based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). In the first part, PEDOT:PSS/P(BA-St) was prepared by blending various soft poly(n-butyl acrylate-styrene) (P(BA-St)) latexes into a PEDOT:PSS conductive dispersion. The PEDOT:PSS conductive dispersion was prepared via oxidative polymerization of EDOT, and the soft P(BA-St) latexes were synthesized by emulsion polymerization using various types of surfactants. In the second part, poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS) served as a surfactant to synthesize poly(styrenesulfonate)-poly(butyl acrylate) (PSS-PBA) soft latex via emulsion polymerization. Then, the PEDOT:PSS-PBA dispersion was prepared by using the PSS-PBA soft latex as a polymeric template to polymerize EDOT. The glass transition temperature (T-g) and particle size of P(BA-St) and PSS-PBA were measured. The optoelectronic properties of the conductive PEDOT:PSS/P(BA-St) and PEDOT:PSS-PBA films such as transmittance, surface resistance, and UV-vis absorbance were investigated. According to the elongation measurement, the fabricated PEDOT:PSS/P(BA-St) elastic film containing a P(BA-St) content as high as 83 wt% showed a high value of 97% elongation, while possessing good film conductivity (63 S cm(-1)) and superior transmittance (93%). On the other hand, the fabricated PEDOT: PSS-PBA flexible film containing 13 wt% PBA showed a low surface resistance increment (R/R-0 < 1.2) after two steps of bending test, while maintaining superior conductivity (300 S cm(-1)) and high light transmittance (>80%).