Shape-Dependent Conduction Regime in Self-Doped Polyaniline

Abstract

Conductive polymers are key building blocks for the construction of molecular devices, and it is crucial to elucidate the conduction properties in microscaleshaped nanometer-thickness thin films in which the number of conduction paths is limited. In this study, we describe the effect of chemical doping and spatial limitation on the electrical conduction properties of sulfonated polyaniline (SPAN) strips with nanometer thickness fabricated by fountain-pen lithography and consider their electrical conduction mechanism. Raman spectroscopy indicated that the polarons in the SPAN strips decreased with increasing pH of the SPAN solution. According to the electrical measurements, the current−voltage (I− V) characteristics switched from linear to nonlinear by reducing the polarons and the conducting paths in thin strips. The results suggest that the nonlinear properties arise from the reduction of effective hopping barriers between a small number of conductive regions applied with localized electric field in the bottleneck region.

Bio-Inspired Homogeneous Conductive Hydrogel with Flexibility and Adhesiveness for Information Transmission and Sign Language Recognition

“…11 As a widely used conducting polymer, polyaniline (PANI) with the advantages of a wide conductivity range, good environmental characteristics, and chemical stability is attracting great attention. 12,13 Moreover, thanks to their inexpensive raw materials and easy doping process, composite hydrogels with PANI have undoubtedly become the ideal option for flexible sensing systems. 14 However, hydrogels that are directly mixed with PANI lack compatibility and stability because of the hydrophobicity−hydrophilicity mismatch in the hydrogel matrix.…”

“…To meet the stringent requirements of complicated mechanical and electrochemical properties, methods for developing hydrogels with conductive polymers are generally proposed . As a widely used conducting polymer, polyaniline (PANI) with the advantages of a wide conductivity range, good environmental characteristics, and chemical stability is attracting great attention. , Moreover, thanks to their inexpensive raw materials and easy doping process, composite hydrogels with PANI have undoubtedly become the ideal option for flexible sensing systems . However, hydrogels that are directly mixed with PANI lack compatibility and stability because of the hydrophobicity–hydrophilicity mismatch in the hydrogel matrix. , As a result, it is highly demanded to optimize the dispersity of PANI in a gel network.…”