The Polar Solvent Application Method for Organic Transparent Conductive Film Produced by an Inkjet Printing Method

Abstract

In recent years, flexible electronic devices have attracted much attention. Accordingly, flexible transparent conductive films are being researched actively. The commonly used indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent conductive film has limited flexibility. Therefore, we focused on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythio- phene)/poly(styrenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS) as a substitute material for ITO and are engaged in producing flexible transparent conductive film using inkjet printers. To improve the characteristics of the transparent conductive film produced by inkjet printing, based on prior research, we found that cleaning the film substrate with ultraviolet/ozone (UV/O3) and post-deposition annealing and treatment using polar solvents are effective for thin films. In this study, we examined the method of applying the polar solvent. As a result, we were able to improve the homogeneity of the thin film surface by applying the polar solvent to each thin film lamination layer. The resulting characteristics obtained for a three-layer printed PEDOT:PSS thin film with polar solvent coating were resistivity of 1.49 × 10-3 Ω·cm and transmittance of 84.6%. However, we found that the surface condition changed depending on the processing method, affecting the rate of visible light transmittance.