PEDOT:PSS or Poly poly(styrenesulfonate) (see figure) is a polymer

Polymer

A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units. These subunits are typically connected by covalent chemical bonds...

 mixture of two ionomer

Ionomer

An ionomer is a polymer that comprises repeat units of both electrically neutral repeating units and a fraction of ionized units...

s. One component in this mixture is made up of sodium polystyrene sulfonate

Sodium polystyrene sulfonate

Sodium polystyrene sulfonate is a type of polymer and ionomer based on polystyrene. It is the sodium salt of polystyrene sulfonic acid.-Chemical properties:...

 which is a sulfonated

Aromatic sulfonation

Aromatic sulfonation is an organic reaction in which a hydrogen atom on an arene is replaced by a sulfonic acid functional group in an electrophilic aromatic substitution.-Mechanism:...

 polystyrene

Polystyrene

Polystyrene ) also known as Thermocole, abbreviated following ISO Standard PS, is an aromatic polymer made from the monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry...

. Part of the sulfonyl

Sulfonyl

A sulfonyl group can refer either to a functional group found primarily in sulfones or to a substituent obtained from a sulfonic acid by the removal of the hydroxyl group similarly to acyl groups...

 groups are deprotonated

Deprotonation

Deprotonation is the removal of a proton from a molecule, forming the conjugate base.The relative ability of a molecule to give up a proton is measured by its pKa value. A low pKa value indicates that the compound is acidic and will easily give up its proton to a base...

 and carry a negative charge. The other component poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)

Poly or PEDOT is a conducting polymer based on 3,4-ethylenedioxylthiophene or EDOT monomer. Advantages of this polymer are optical transparency in its conducting state, high stability and moderate band gap and low redox potential...

 or PEDOT is a conjugated

Conjugated system

In chemistry, a conjugated system is a system of connected p-orbitals with delocalized electrons in compounds with alternating single and multiple bonds, which in general may lower the overall energy of the molecule and increase stability. Lone pairs, radicals or carbenium ions may be part of the...

 polymer and carries positive charges and is based on polythiophene

Polythiophene

Polythiophenes result from the polymerization of thiophenes, a sulfur heterocycle, that can become conducting when electrons are added or removed from the conjugated π-orbitals via doping....

. Together the charged

Electric charge

Electric charge is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when near other electrically charged matter. Electric charge comes in two types, called positive and negative. Two positively charged substances, or objects, experience a mutual repulsive force, as do two...

 macromolecule

Macromolecule

A macromolecule is a very large molecule commonly created by some form of polymerization. In biochemistry, the term is applied to the four conventional biopolymers , as well as non-polymeric molecules with large molecular mass such as macrocycles...

s form a macromolecular salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

.

It is used as a transparent

Transparency and translucency

In the field of optics, transparency is the physical property of allowing light to pass through a material; translucency only allows light to pass through diffusely. The opposite property is opacity...

, conductive polymer

Conductive polymer

Conductive polymers or, more precisely, intrinsically conducting polymers are organic polymers that conduct electricity. Such compounds may have metallic conductivity or can be semiconductors. The biggest advantage of conductive polymers is their processability, mainly by dispersion. Conductive...

 with high ductility

Ductility

In materials science, ductility is a solid material's ability to deform under tensile stress; this is often characterized by the material's ability to be stretched into a wire. Malleability, a similar property, is a material's ability to deform under compressive stress; this is often characterized...

 in different applications.