Conductive Polythiophene Nanoparticles Deposition on Transparent PET Substrates: Effect of Modification with Hybrid Organic-inorganic Coating

In this work, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate was treated using KOH solution and was modified using hybrid O-I coating containing polycaprolactone (PCL) as organic phase and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as inorganic phase. The coating was prepared through sol-gel process and applied on the surface by dip coater. Then, electrically conducting polythiophene (PTh) nanoparticles were deposited on the surfaces using chemical deposition method. A facile and rapid chemical oxidative deposition method using a binary organic solvent system during 12 min of reaction time was used and the effect of surface modification by hybrid coating on morphology of PTh nanoparticles were studied. The synthesized hybrid layer is transparent and its constitutes are tunable, so, the hybrid layer is susceptible for wide range of application. The optical transparency of PTh nanoparticles coated on PET films characterized by UV-V is spectroscopy. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser particle-size analysis were used to study surface morphology, average size and size distribution of PTh nanoparticles. Electrical conductivity of PET substrate deposited by PTh nanoparticles was measured using four probe to be 1.7×10-5 S/cm.