Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-tetramethacrylate or PEDOT-TMA is a p-type conducting polymer based on 3,4-ethylenedioxylthiophene or the EDOT monomer. It is a modification of the PEDOT structure. Advantages of this polymer relative to PEDOT (or PEDOT:PSS) are that it is dispersible in organic solvents, and it is non-corrosive. PEDOT-TMA was developed under a contract with the National Science Foundation, and it was first announced publicly on April 12, 2004. The trade name for PEDOT-TMA is Oligotron. PEDOT-TMA was featured in an article entitled "Next Stretch for Plastic Electronics" that appeared in Scientific American in 2004. The U.S. Patent office issued a patent protecting PEDOT-TMA on April 22, 2008. PEDOT-TMA differs from the parent polymer PEDOT in that it is capped on both ends of the polymer. This limits the chain-length of the polymer, making it more soluble in organic solvents than PEDOT. The methacrylate groups on the two end-caps allow further chemistry to occur such as cross-linking to other polymers or materials.

Physical properties

The bulk conductivity of PEDOT-TMA is 0.1-.5 S/cm, the sheet resistance 1-10 M Ω/sq, and the methacrylate equivalent weight 1360-1600 g/mol. The chemical composition of a film of PEDOT-TMA was measured by energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The relative C, O, and S weight percentages were 51.28%, 35.37%, and 10.43%. There was also 2.92% Fe present in the film.

Applications

Several devices and materials have been described in both journals and the patent literature that use PEDOT-TMA as a critical component. In this section, a brief overview of these inventions is given.