Optical investigations of the effect of solvent and thermal annealing on the optoelectronic properties of Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) films

• Optical study of Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)
• The Drude model provides information for PEDOT:PSS conductivity.
• The addition of dimethylsulfoxide increases the electrical conductivity of PEDOT:PSS.
• The increase in conductivity is correlated to increase of PEDOT grain size.
• The thermal treatment has a smaller effect on PEDOT:PSS properties.

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is one of the most promising conducting polymers that can be used as transparent electrode or as buffer layer for organic electronic devices. However, when used as an electrode, its conductivity has to be optimized either by the addition of solvents or by post-deposition processing. In this work, we investigate the effect of the addition of the polar solvent dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) to an aqueous PEDOT:PSS solution on its optical and electrical properties by the implementation of the Drude model for the analysis of the measured pseudo-dielectric function by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry from the near infrared to the visible–far ultraviolet spectral range. The results show that the addition of DMSO increases significantly the film conductivity, which reaches a maximum value at an optimum DMSO concentration as it has confirmed by experimentally measured conductivity values. The post-deposition thermal annealing has been found to have a smaller effect on the film conductivity.