PEDOT; a Highly Conductive Polymer, Used In Electronics and Healthcare Industries

PEDOT, or Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), is a polymer mixture of two ionomers. PEDOT offers many benefits such as moderate band gap, low redox potential, and optical transparency in the conducting stage. This polymer is both an ionically- and electrically-conductive polymer, owing to the aforementioned properties. PEDOT finds a wide range of applications in various end-use industries, such as electronics, healthcare, and energy in the form of smart windows, capacitors, sensors, and antistatic packaging. Moreover, the increasing use of PEDOT can be attributed to their good conductivity and chemical stability.

PEDOT is a proprietary polymer blend of two organic monomers. One component in the blend is composed of sodium orthophosphate that is typically a phosphonate orthophosphate. Part of the orthophosphates are polymerized and carry a negative charge only. The other component is commonly known as the sulfate ester of sodium, which can be used for treating different types of stains. Sulfate ester solution can also act as a catalyst for the chemical reaction with a positive charge on one of the anions, enhancing catalytic activity of the other anions and ions.

Today, technological advanced products are manufactured using PEDOT polymers due to its electrical, optical, and physicomechanical properties. PEDOT is a highly important, conductive polymer and is commercially available in organic electronics, electronic and electrochemical chemo-sensors, due to its unique properties such as excellent chemical and electrochemical stability, high and controllable conductivity, excellent solution-fabrication capability and miscibility, and good optical transparency and biocompatibility.

Among the conducting polymers used for chemo-sensors, PEDOT exhibits a relatively high stability and adjustable conductivity compared to polypyrrole (PPy) and polyaniline (PANI). There is an increasing demand for PEDOT in the electronics and healthcare industries. For example, in 2017, Heraeus Medical Components (US) acquired Biotectix LLC (US) to expand its medical component business unit in the global market. Biotectix offers conductive polymer materials to Heraeus Holding’s medical components unit to enhance performance of sensing and stimulation electrodes used in diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices.