Regulating monomer assembly to enhance PEDOT capacitance performance via different oxidants

Xiao Chen; Chunyan Zhu; Fengxing Jiang; Guoqiang Liu; Congcong Liu; Qinglin Jiang; Jingkun Xu; Jianyu An; Peipei Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.05.122

Regulating monomer assembly to enhance PEDOT capacitance performance via different oxidants

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Nov:601:265-271. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.05.122. Epub 2021 May 24.

Authors

Xiao Chen¹, Chunyan Zhu², Fengxing Jiang³, Guoqiang Liu², Congcong Liu⁴, Qinglin Jiang⁵, Jingkun Xu¹, Jianyu An², Peipei Liu⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang 330013, PR China; Flexible Electronics Innovation Institute (FEII), Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Nanchang, 330013, PR China.
² Department of Physics, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang 330013, PR China.
³ Department of Physics, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang 330013, PR China. Electronic address: f.x.jiang@live.cn.
⁴ Flexible Electronics Innovation Institute (FEII), Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Nanchang, 330013, PR China.
⁵ Institute Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China.
⁶ Department of Physics, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang 330013, PR China. Electronic address: liupeipei8866@126.com.

PMID: 34082231
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.05.122

Abstract

The development of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) with high specific capacitance is the key to pursuing high-performance supercapacitors, and the electrochemical properties of PEDOT are closely related to the oxidation degree and conjugated chain length of its molecular chain. In this work, the influences of various oxidants (FeCl₃, Fe(Tos)₃ and MoCl₅) on the molecular chain structure and capacitive properties of PEDOT via vapor phase polymerization were systematically investigated. Fe(Tos)₃ can significantly improve the degree of oxidation and the length of the conjugated chain of PEDOT compared to FeCl₃ and MoCl₅, enhancing the conductivity and providing more active sites for Faraday reaction. Therefore, the PEDOT/P(Fe(Tos)₃) electrode displays a considerable conductivity of 73 S cm^-¹, high areal capacitance (419 mF cm^-²) and excellent electrochemical stability under the different bent state. Moreover, the conjugated structure strengthens the interaction between PEDOT chains, achieving good cycle stability. Therefore, Fe(Tos)₃ is an ideal oxidant for obtaining high-performance PEDOT electrode materials.

Keywords: Capacitive performance; Oxidants; PEDOT; Vapor phase polymerization.