PEDOT:PSS: Smart Infrared Rewritable Materials

Thermal radiation spectrum regulation plays an important role in energy and information fields. Effectively hiding targets and rendering it invisible to infrared imaging detectors are great challenges in past decades. Herein, a smart infrared rewritable and emissivity tunable polymer film is proposed based on PEDOT:PSS. The adjustment ability for the thermal emission is attributed to the mobile polaronic of PEDOT that can be effectively regulated by redox agents, resulting in an infrared emission modulation > 30%. The conformation and molecular stacking order of PEDOT also present reversible property, accompanied with the transformation between dication state and neutral state. Finally, a technique for direct writing and erasing process in the infrared region is implemented, based on the simple redox treating process. This work aims to provide a simple strategy on fabricating rewritable films based on conducting polymer PEDOT:PSS, which can be potentially applied in infrared optics security printing.

Automated summary

In this study, a smart infrared rewritable and emissivity tunable polymer film based on PEDOT:PSS is proposed. The adjustment ability of thermal emission is achieved by regulating the mobile polaronic of PEDOT with redox agents, resulting in a modulation of infrared emission > 30%. The reversible property of PEDOT's conformation and molecular stacking order is also demonstrated, accompanied by the transformation between dication state and neutral state. Additionally, a technique for direct writing and erasing process in the infrared region is implemented using a simple redox treating process.