Vapor phase polymerization of Ag QD-embedded PEDOT film with enhanced thermoelectric and antibacterial properties

Abstract Nonferric oxidant precursors have the unique advantage of directly polymerizing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT)-inorganic composites. However, due to limited solubility and unmatched oxidation potentials, most oxidants only produce powders or porous materials. To obtain high-quality films with improved homogeneity controllable particle sizes, should be adaptable high-standard PEDOT film fabrication techniques such as vapor phase polymerization (VPP). In this work, we discovered for first time a nonferric metal salt suitable VPP process. With addition an Fe(III) stabilize reaction adjust ratio, micron-thick antibacterial S-PEDOT-Ag quantum dot (QD) composite tunable Ag wt% can synthesized in one facile step. low loading ~0.2 wt%, exhibited optimized power factor 63.1 μW/mK 2 , which is among highest values thus far reported PEDOT-metal Increase Ag(I) concentration precursor certain level may lead minor decomposition polymer followed by formation S particles.