Conductive polymer ink boost for printed electronics

Electrically conducting polymers have led to flexible and lightweight electronic components including organic biosensors, solar cells, light-emitting diodes, transistors, and batteries.

The electrical properties of the conducting polymers can be tuned via ‘doping’, a process in which dopant molecules are added to the polymer to change its properties.

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The doped polymer can conduct electricity via electrons (an n-type conductor), or positively charged holes (a p-type conductor). The most commonly used conducting polymer is the p-type conductor PEDOT:PSS, which has high electrical conductivity, excellent ambient stability, and commercial availability as an aqueous dispersion. According to Linköping University in Sweden, a number of electronic devices require a p-type/ n-type combination to function but there is no n-type equivalent to PEDOT:PSS.

Researchers at Linköping, together with colleagues in the US and South Korea, have now developed a conductive n-type polymer ink - BBL:PEI - that is said to be stable in air and at high temperatures. The team’s findings are published in Nature Communications.