Low resistance, highly corrugated structures based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with a d-glucopyranoside-derived ionic liquid

Abstract

Conjugated polymers have gained significant interest as highly conducting organic materials with versatile surface morphology. In this study, we demonstrate that the electrodeposition of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), PEDOT, in the presence of a d-glucopyranoside-derived ionic liquid (IL) results in the formation of highly corrugated three-dimensional structures. The as-formed PEDOT/IL is found to outperform PEDOT electrodeposited in the presence of a conventional electrolyte (KCl) in terms of the low impedance at the biologically relevant frequency (1 kHz) and low charge transfer resistance. Consequently, it can be inferred that the unique surface morphology and beneficial electrochemical performance will facilitate the application of PEDOT/IL in biomedical engineering, especially in the field of neural interfaces and tissue scaffolds.