8.2 Structure and water dynamics in conductive PEDOT:PSS/cellulose nanocomposite films

Lucas Kreuzer

Postdoc

Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (FRM II) Technical University of Munich

Co-author(s):
Marie Betker, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg
Marcell Wolf, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (FRM II) Technical University of Munich
Bart-Jan Niebuur, INM – Leibniz-Institute for New Materials, Saarbrücken
Jacques Ollivier, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble
Daniel Söderberg, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Stockholm
Stephan Roth, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg

PEDOT:PSS is a water-dispersable  and electrically conductive polymer blend that is increasingly applied in numerous fields such as batteries and super-capacitors. While many studies focus on performance optimization, degradation issues because of humid environments are rarely discussed. PEDOT:PSS absorbs significant amounts of water (~50 wt%), which leads to a pronounced film swelling factor of up to 1.6. The integration of PEDOT:PSS into a cellulose nanofibril (CNF) matrix enhances significantly the mechanical integrity and prevents film swelling, whereas a certain water amount is still absorbed into the PEDOT:PSS/CNF films (~24 wt%). By studying the water dynamics via QENS under varying ambient relative humidity (RH) conditions, we identified two water species inside the films: fast-moving bulk water and slow-moving hydration water. Under dry conditions, bulk water is completely released from the films, while some of the hydration water remains within them. In humid environments, both water species are present. The altered water content inside the PEDOT:PSS/CNF films in dependence of RH, leads to changing water-cellulose interactions, structural re-arrangements, and also affects the electrical conductivity: Under dry conditions, only some hydration water is present in the films and PEDOT:PSS – CNF interactions become more dominant. As a consequence, PEDOT:PSS wets on the CNF, thereby leading to an increased conductivity. In high RH conditions this is reversed: the high water content inside the films promotes de-wetting of PEDOT:PSS and the electrical conductivity decreases. In addition, the QENS measurements provide detailed information about the diffusive behavior of water molecules, while the PEDOT:PSS/CNF film morphology was analyzed with small angle neutron scattering under grazing-incidence (GISANS).

References:1) Lucas P. Kreuzer, Marie Betker, Marcell Wolf, Bart-Jan Niebuur, Jacques Ollivier, L. Daniel Söderberg, and Stephan V. RothMacromolecules Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.4c02412 2) Lorenz Bießmann, Lucas Philipp Kreuzer, Tobias Widmann, Nuri Hohn, Jean-François Moulin, and Peter Müller-BuschbaumACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2018 10 (11), 9865-9872, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b004463) C. J. Brett, O. K. Forslund, E. Nocerino, L. P. Kreuzer, T. Widmann, L. Porcar, N. L. Yamada, N. Matsubara, M. Månsson, P. Müller-Buschbaum, L. D. Söderberg, S. V. Roth, Humidity-Induced Nanoscale Restructuring in PEDOT:PSS and Cellulose Nanofibrils Reinforced Biobased Organic Electronics. Adv. Electron. Mater. 2021, 7, 2100137, https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.202100137

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