Atmospheric plasma oxidative polymerization of ethylene dioxythiophene (EDOT) for the large-scale preparation of highly transparent conducting thin films

A simple and easily scalable approach toward the simultaneous synthesis and deposition of conducting plasma-polymerized 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (ppEDOT) coatings is reported. Our atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge (AP-DBD) approach, operating at room-temperature and atmospheric-pressure, does not involve the use of oxidants other than the reactive oxygen species (ROS) formed by the open air Ar/O-2 dielectric barrier discharge. The oxidative polymerization of EDOT is confirmed using UV-visible (UV-vis), Raman, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) investigations highlight the discrepancies between the synthesized ppEDOT and conventional PEDOT. Finally, highly transparent (i.e., 98% transmittance) and durable conducting thin films are deposited on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) foils.