AVS 49th International Symposium
    Organic Films and Devices Tuesday Sessions
       Session OF+SS+EL+SC-TuA

Paper OF+SS+EL+SC-TuA9
Processable Optically Transparent Thin Films of Conducting Polymers

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 4:40 pm, Room C-102

Session: Organic Molecular Films
Presenter: B.D. Martin, Naval Research Laboratory
Authors: B.D. Martin, Naval Research Laboratory
N. Nikolov, Naval Research Laboratory
R. Shashidhar, Naval Research Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
A major problem in the area of electronically conducting polymers is that attempts to enhance their electrical conductivity by adding ionic dopants are always accompanied by a decrease of optical transparency. In this study we show how molecular self-assembly of small carbohydrate molecules can decouple the optical transparency and electrical conductance of conducting polymer films. When a carbohydrate such as glycerol, which is essentially a non-ionic hydrogen bonding dopant, is added to a commercially available conducting polymer suspension (Baytron P), the carbohydrate forms an intercalated, hydrogen bonded sandwich between the ionic pairs of the conducting oligomer unit and its supporting polymer suprastructure. This results in a pronounced increase of the distance between the ion pairs, and hence, to decreased electrostatic interaction. As a consequence there is an enhanced mobility of the ions and hence an increased conductivity without an accompanying increase in optical absorption. This behavior, which is in striking contrast to the normally observed trends in conducting polymers doped with traditional ionic dopants, is very important to the development of plastic liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays.