Understanding Volumetric Capacitance in Conducting Polymers

Recent measurements in poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy-thiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films show that capacitance scales with film volume. We discuss the ramifications of this finding and propose a simple model that describes capacitance in terms of sites in which ions injected from the electrolyte replace holes that are extracted from the film by a metal contact. We propose that volumetric capacitance is inversely proportional to the average distance between these sites. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.