Effect of Surfactant Addition on Organic Transparent Conductive Films Fabricated by Inkjet Printing Method

Atsushi Nitta,Naohiko Chosa,Kazuhiro Takeda

doi:10.3390/electronicmat2040038

Atsushi Nitta, Naohiko Chosa + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/electronicmat2040038

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Abstract

Recently, active research has been conducted on the development of flexible electronic devices. Hence, the transparent conductive film (TCF), an essential component of the device, must also be flexible. However, the commonly used indium tin oxide (ITO) TCF lacks flexibility and contains rare metal, making resource depletion an issue. Therefore, we focused on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), which has high flexibility and conductivity. Flexible TCFs have been fabricated by coating PEDOT:PSS on polyethylene naphthalate substrates using an inkjet printer. However, the current issue in such fabrication is the effect of the interface state on the transparency and conductivity of the thin film. In this study, we investigated the effect of surfactant in addition to polar solvents on the properties of thin films fabricated with PEDOT:PSS ink. Although the electrical conductivity was reduced, the transmittance remained above 90%. Thus, these results are comparable to those of ITO TCFs for practical use in terms of optical properties.

Highlights

We have shown have shown that ultraviolet/ozone (UV/O3) cleaning of the substrate, heat treatment that ultraviolet/ozone (UV/O3 ) cleaning of the substrate, heat treatment method, and method, and treatment with polar solvents is effective for PEDOT:PSS thin films
We investigated the addition of vestigated the addition of surfactants to polar solvents in thin films prepared with PE‐
The addition of a fluorosurfactant to a polar solvent reduced the conductivity. This may be due to the electronegative fluorine atoms in the surfactant, which prevents the may be due to the electronegative fluorine atoms in the surfactant, which prevents the transfer of electrons in the film

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Flexible devices using organic materials have recently attracted attention [1,2,3,4]. These organic electronic devices can be fabricated at a low cost through low-temperature processes, such as coating and printing [5,6]. Vacuum evaporation and sputtering are widely used deposition methods for fabrication, the production requires vacuum equipment, leading to high initial investment and energy and raw material consumption

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