Study of electrical transport properties of conducting polymer PEDOT: PSS in confined channels

Abstract

Electrical transport in conducting polymers are fundamentally different from the conventional metals. Doping of conducting polymers involve introduction of ionic species which causes disorder. In the context of electrical properties, disorder influences charge carrier transport. Disorder induced electrical transport is described in terM.S. of quasi-particles such as solitons, polarons and bi-polarons whose effective masses are greater than electron masses. Electronic transport thus happens in the background of ionic displacement. This picture roughly describes the mixed electronic-ionic conduction state in conducting polymers. Simultaneous probing of electronic and ionic carrier conduction in these mixed conducting polymers is difficult due to the coupling of the charge carriers and variation of film morphology due to the perturbations induced in the system during the carrier transport.