Enhanced adhesion of polyaniline thin films deposited on polydimethylsiloxane surfaces activated by Ozone treatment and aminosilanization

Flexible electronic devices have emerged as a key area of research in the recent past, for which the design of suitable substrates is important. Conducting polymers are gaining importance as conducting electrodes and active materials in several organic electronic devices. One of the important conducting polymers is polyaniline (PANI), which can be doped with an acid and has a reasonably high conductivity. Polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS, is a soft, transparent, flexible insulating polymer with good viscoelasticity, biocompatibility, hydrophobicity and high chemical inertness to alcohols and polar solvents. In this work, we report the fabrication of conducting, transparent, and flexible polymeric substrates by in situ polymerization of aniline to obtain robust HCl-doped PANI on PDMS surfaces.