Acid cleavage triggered via ion exchange (ACTVIE) leads to superior conductivity in doped polythiophenes

Doping conjugated polymers has played an important role in many optoelectronic applications, from transistors to solar cells. While strong oxidants (such as F4TCNQ) and strong acids (such as BF3) have been used wildly to significantly improve the observed conductivity of conjugated polymers, they are rarely used in synergy. This talk will discuss our recent discovery in using strong acids to cleave alkyl side chains in conjugated polymers during doping with a strong oxidant (F4TCNQ). We observed over 106 increase of conductivity when both the strong acid (e.g., TfOH) and the strong oxidant (F4TCNQ) are applied simultaneously in dip doping, than each component is applied separately or sequentially. We will present the detailed experimental results and the proposed mechanism with control experiments.