Thin Solid Films, Vol.517, No.11, 3299-3303, 2009
Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(4-styrenesulfonate): Correlation between colloidal particles and thin films
We deal with correlation between sizes of colloidal particles and minimum thickness of spin-coated thin films of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT/PSS) studied by a dynamic light scattering (DLS), a scanning transmission electron microscopy coupled with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDX), C(60)-sputtering X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and an atomic force microscopy. Based on the various measurements, it was pointed out that, PEDOT/PSS colloidal dispersion contained majority of primary nanoparticles with mean diameter of 41 nm and 16 nm for BAYTRON P AG (denote P grade) or BAYTRON PH500 (denote PH grade) solutions. respectively, and small amount of clusters aggregated by the primary particles, based on the DLS measurement and STEM observation. On the other hand, PEDOT/PSS thin films with thickness of 44 nm and 16 nm were easily prepared by spin-coating on silicon wafers from the P and PH grade solutions, respectively. Results of STEM-EDX, DLS, and XPS measurements suggested that the PEDOT/PSS thin films consist of the randomly packed primary nanoparticle-"monolayer". (C)009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Polymer;Atomic force microscopy (AFM);Transmission electron microscopy (TEM);X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)