Influence of thermal treatment on the conductivity of PEDT films

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDT) has attracted a great deal of interest during the last decade. Many industrial processes involve thermal procedures. and investigating the influence of thermal treatment on the conductivity of PEDT is thus important to understand some problems in real manufacturing processes. In this study, substrate-supported PEDT films were prepared by a chemical oxidative process. The PEDT films were heated at a temperature between 100 and 300°C for different treatment times. The heating was conducted in either air or N₂ atmosphere to study the moisture and oxygen effects on PEDT during thermal treatment. The conductivity of the PEDT films was measured during the heating process and after the thermal treatment. The influence of treatment temperature on film conductivity was investigated.