Enhancement of conductivity and transparency for of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) films using photo-acid generator as dopant

Abstract We introduced the photoacid generator as dopant of photon energy to improve the conductivity of PEDOT:PSS films and form patterned film. The PEDOT:PSS film using PAG-001 exhibited the lowest sheet resistance of 156 Ω/sq at the photon energy of 1 J (10 wt% of PAG-001 in IPA). Also, the PEDOT:PSS film using PAG-301s exhibited the lowest sheet resistance of 154 Ω/sq at the photon energy of 1 J (10 wt% of PAG-301s in IPA). In terms of durability, the sheet resistance of the PEDOT:PSS film with PAG increased to 10% after 10 days, which shows better stability than that of PEDOT:PSS film with DMSO (10% 3 days). We introduced piperidine to increase sheet resistance gaps between conductive and insulating region. In the case of piperidine treatment, the sheet resistance of the conductive region showed 243 Ω/sq, and that of the insulating region showed 2.6*10 7  Ω/sq. In one film, the difference of sheet resistance between the conductive and insulating regions increased from 10 3 to 10 5 times.