Low-pressure droplet-evaporation deposition forming transparent conductive films of graphene and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate

Abstract Transparent conductive materials and films at nanometer scales have been studied over the last decade for use as electrodes in a variety of industrial applications such as optical detectors, displays, and solar cells. Fundamental requirements for the coating of them on substrates involves both electrical conductivity and optical transmittance in the visible range of light. Recently remarkable progress of emerging nanomaterials has been shown to further enhance these properties. This paper reports a low-pressure droplet-evaporation deposition method that can be simply implemented by one or two atomizers. Using dual spray of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and graphene solutions in a vacuum environment, two components composite films were produced with a much higher conductivity than that with single component ones. The experimental results showed that the electrical conductivity of the graphene-doped PEDOT:PSS films are simply altered from the different rates of dual sprays. As a result, dual spray provided the capability to control the conductivity and transmittance by altering the deposition parameters. In this way, a variety of composite films and materials fabricated by low-pressure dual-spray deposition could be applied in applications such as flexible displays and solar cells.