Synthesis of PEDOT in a continuous microfluidic system

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ORIGINAL PAPER

Synthesis of PEDOT in a continuous microfluidic system Elham Effati 1 & Hooshiar Heidari 2 & Behzad Pourabbas 1

# The Polymer Society, Taipei 2020

Abstract Polyethylenedioxytiophene (PEDOT) is synthesized successfully and for the first time from its monomer by chemical oxidation polymerization in a microchannel device inside micro-droplets. The oxidizing agent, ammonium persulfate, with different molar ratios to the monomer was used and compared with an out-of-channel synthesized PEDOT. Details of the procedure, droplet formation mechanism inside the channel in addition to the effect of various factors are described. The device can be used as a fast and continuous method for the synthesis of PEDOT. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, photoluminescence spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are the methods for evaluating and comparison of the products. The results showed that despite the same materials and conditions for in-channel polymerization, the microfluidic synthesis is much more sensitive method compared to common bulk methods. Keywords PEDOT . Microfluidics . Oxidation polymerization . Nanoparticles . Conducting polymer

Introduction Among the conducting polymers, polythiophene-based polymers due to the superior environmental stability (both in doped and undoped states) and variety of available derivatives have been used in applications such as conductors, electrode materials, organic semiconductors, sensors etc. [1]. Poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), is one of the mostly interested conducting polythiphenes because of its excellent environmental stability, high electrical conductivity and transparency in thin oxidized films [2, 3]. Like most of the conducting polymers, polythiophenes are essentially prepared by means of the chemical and the electrochemical polymerization. However, the final properties of the polymer depends on the method of synthesis with processability being the major challenge of intention for different Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-020-02205-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Behzad Pourabbas [email protected] 1

Department of Polymer Engineering, Nanostructured Materials Research Center, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran

2

Zarrin Foam Sanaat, Kamyaran Industrial Town, kamyaran, Kurdistan, Iran

applications [4]. As the result, micro- nanostructured particles has been considered as the promising solutions to the problem [5]. One of the most fascinating methods during the past years has been in-microchannel synthesis methods [6–9] with a limited numbers of studies on conducting polymers [10]. This may be confused with the ordinary emulsion or reverse emulsion methods however there are advantages with inchannel synthesis including narrow polydispersity indices and accessibil