A study on improving electrical conductivity for conducting polymers and their applications to transparent electrodes

As the need for next-generation flexible electronics grows, novel materials and technologies that can replace conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) for transparent electrodes have been of great interest. Among them, a conducting polymer, especially poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) : poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT : PSS) is one of the most promising candidates because it is mechanically flexible, inexpensive, and capable of being processed in solution. Currently, there are a lot of research efforts on enhancing its electrical conductivity to the level of ITO or metal electrodes through chemical and/or physical processing. In this review article, we present various additives and pre-/post-deposition processing methods for improving the electrical conductivity of PEDOT : PSS. Some of representative reports are also introduced, which demonstrated the use of conductivity-enhanced PEDOT : PSS as transparent electrodes in electronics and energy conversion.