Mechanical properties of the intrinsically conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT/PSS)

In recent years there have been vast efforts to establish organic electronic devices. A key property of such devices is the possibility to fabricate them on flexible substrates. As the layers are mechanically stressed during bending, the knowledge of mechanical properties of the materials used will become very important. In this research the mechanical properties of the intrinsically conductive and widely used polymer PEDOT/PSS were investigated using a micro tensile test setup. The tensile tests showed values for Young's Modulus in the range from 1 GPa to 2.7 GPa, for the tensile strength in a range from 25 MPa to about 55 MPa and for the total strain at break between 3% and 5%, all of them depending on relative humidity.