DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.aohm.2019.033
Publication date: 8th January 2019
Mixed-conductors are materials that conduct both electrons and ions, thereby allowing transduction between biological signals and electronics. Conjugated polymers (CP) have the potential to be high-performing mixed-conductors for bioelectronics due to their redox chemistry, flexibility, processability and biocompatibility.1 Previous work showed increased electrochemical oxidation in regio-regular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) by OH-functionalization of the side chains, underlining the importance of hydrophilicity and ion mobility in mixed-conduction materials.2
This work demonstrates faster electrochemical doping in conjugated polymers by blending with hydrophilic components and their application in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). Poly(3-hydroxyhexylthiophene) (P3HHT) and random copolymer P3HT-co-P3HHT are blended with hydrophilic block copolymers (BCPs) of P3HT and polyethylene oxide (P3HT-b-PEO) where the PEO fraction is varied between 1 and 20 kg/mol. Electrochromic spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are used to investigate the effect of blending the CP with BCPs on the doping kinetics and on the capacitance in thin films, respectively. Addition of hydrophilic BCPs induces higher doping rates and lowers the impedance with respect to neat CPs promoting ion penetration in the bulk of the thin film. Finally, the blends are implemented in OECTs to show the effect on mixed conduction properties. These results show how ion mobility in films of electroactive CP can be modulated by enhancing hydrophilicity through side-chain engineering and blending with hydrophilic components. Both strategies are viable and compatible to improve ionic conductivity in mixed-conductors for bioelectronics.
This research was supported by the Initiative d'excellence de l'Université de Bordeaux (IDEX Bordeaux). The authors would also like to thank Olivier Dautel for providing some of the polymers used in this study.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.