Applied Surface Science 255 (2008) 734–736

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Applied Surface Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apsusc

KDP/PEDOT:PSS mixture as a new alternative in the fabrication of pressure

sensing devices
F.A.R. Silva a, L.M. Silva a, A.M. Ceschin a,*, M.J.A. Sales b, S.G.C. Moreira c, C.E. Viana d
a
Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, Universidade de Brası´lia, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, 70910-900 Brası´lia, DF, Brazil
b
Instituto de Quı´mica, Universidade de Brası´lia, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, 70910-900 Brası´lia, DF, Brazil
c
Departamento de Fı´sica, Universidade Federal do Pará, 66075-900 Belém, PA, Brazil
d
LSI-EPUSP, Universidade de São Paulo, Cidade Universitária, 05508-900 SP, Brazil

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: In this work we studied the mixture of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)

Available online 4 July 2008 (PEDOT:PSS), a commercial polymer, with monobasic potassium phosphate (KDP), a piezoelectric salt, as
a possible novel material in the fabrication of a low cost, easy-to-make, flexible pressure sensing device.
PACS: The mixture between KDP and PEDOT:PSS was painted in a flexible polyester substrate and dried.
73.20Dx Afterwards, I  V curves were carried out. The samples containing KDP presented higher values of current
71.50+t in smaller voltages than the PEDOT:PSS without KDP. This can mean a change in the chain arrays. Other
71.10+X results showed that the material responds to directly applied pressure to the sample that can be useful to
71.70Ej
sensors fabrication.
Keywords: ß 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PEDOT:PSS
KDP
Presure sensing device

1. Introduction Piezoelectric crystals are capable of displacing charges when

Organic semiconductors based on conjugated molecules and
polymers offer an opportunity to produce devices with wide area
and low cost on flexible plastic substrates [1–3]. Organic thin
film transistors (OTFT’s) have been showing an excellent potential
in the development of optoelectronic and sensing devices. In
particular, for sensor building, the OTFT’s have many advantages
over other types of sensors. First, organic transistors can be built on
plastic substrates and at room temperature, making them flexible
and cheap. Second, the sensors based on transistors are active
devices: many different electronic parameters can be extracted
from its electric characterization. Finally, active sensors combine
the functions of switching and sensing, allowing the attainment of
a trustworthy, limited size sensor matrix.
Many promising applications, including biological and chemical
sensors [4,5] and humidity sensors [6] are reported in the
literature. However, few examples of mechanical sensors have
been reported [7].
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: artemis@ene.unb.br (A.M. Ceschin).
mechanical stress is applied to their structure, and the quantity of
displaced charge is proportional to the applied pressure. Some of
these crystals have a strong anisotropy in the growing rate due to
the production of highly oriented thin films. Monobasic potassium
phosphate (KDP) is one of these crystals. It has two piezoelectric
constants, one in the distance d25 and the other, the stronger, in the
distance d36, with a value of 69.6  108 at 20 8C [8].
In this work, the system chosen was composed of the highly
conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and the
water-soluble polyelectrolyte poly(styrenesulfonate), which acts
as a charge dopant during polymerization [9]. This system is
known as PEDOT:PSS and it is commercialized with the name
Baytron1 P. The PEDOT:PSS is a water-soluble polymer, which is
very stable and has a relatively high conductivity.
2. Experimental details
Not all reagents used in this work need any further preparation.
Baytron1 P was obtained from Bayer AG. The KDP was weighted in
packets of 10, 20 and 40 mg. Then, each packet was solubilized
in 5 ml of PEDOT:PSS. In order to examine the sample thicknesses
(because it was not possible to measure it directly), 0.5, 1.0
and 1.5 ml of the mixtures were painted into polyester sheets

0169-4332/$ – see front matter ß 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2008.07.034
 F.A.R. Silva et al. / Applied Surface Science 255 (2008) 734–736
Fig. 1. I  V curves for the (a) R0, (b) R1, (c) R2 and (d) R3 with 0.5 ml mixtures.
(1 cm  1 cm of area). Then, samples with 0.5 ml are the thinner
ones and the 1.5 ml ones are thicker. Then, the samples were named
as R0 (only PEDOT:PSS), R1 (10 mg KDP), R2 (20 mg KDP) and R3
(40 mg KDP). After that, the electric characterization experiments
were performed.
The I  V curves were obtained with a Keitley 2400 program-
mable semiconductor measuring system from 0 to 10 V with a 0.1
step. In order to measure the I  V curves, the contacts were placed
directly on each sample’s surface without a metallic contact. This
was possible because PEDOT:PSS is a conducting system. For the
pressure response experiments, rectangles of 1.2 mm  15 mm of
a 60 mg KDP sample were prepared, and a metallic contact made of
silver paint was used. The method used for pressure measurement
was the direct method, i.e. the mechanical support for the sample
was also used for the process. It consists of a stainless steel nipple
soldered to a load cell with an external diameter of 16 mm and an
internal diameter of 5 mm. The load cell is as ticker than 100 mm
and the applied pressure is transmitted by uncompressible oil.
In the direct method, the experiment consists on stressing the
sample, in a controlled way, onto a metallic surface. The contact
regions have been excluded. A 5 V bias was applied to the sample,
as usual in industrial pressure transducer tests, and the current
Fig. 2. Resistance and current as a function of pressure, for the 60 mg KDP sample in
direct mode.
735
was measured after that the pressure was applied with a gradual
increase. Electric resistance and dc current were measured as a
function of the applied pressure.
3. Results and discussion
I  V plots for the 0.5 ml samples (R0, R1, R2 and R3) are
presented in Fig. 1. The R0 sample showed an exponential behavior
and the R1, R2 and R3 samples showed a resistor-like behavior. Also,
we observed in the samples with added KDP that, for values of
applied voltage smaller than 3 V, the current increases strongly.
This probably occurs due to the KDP electric dipole re-
orientation in the direction of the applied electric field, favoring
the passage of current. This phenomenon does not occur in the R0
sample, which has no KDP. In this case, no current was detected for
applied voltages smaller than 5 V. The results obtained by
molecular dynamics (pcff, NVT 300 K, 200 ps) [10] showed that
the presence of KDP changes the system in such a way that the
larger the amount of KDP is added more linearized the PEDOT:PSS
chain becomes. This in certain way can facilitate the current
transport, since the dipoles can be better oriented. Fig. 1d is
compatible with this result showing a better current transport.
No hysteresis was observed in the system.
Resistance and electric current as a function of applied pressure
are presented in Fig. 2. When the electric resistance increases the
dc current decreases according to the applied pressure. This
behavior confirms the ability of the applied material to sense
pressure by means of its electrical properties.
4. Summary
A novel material is proposed to fabricate sensing devices with
some advantages in flexibility, low temperature processing, cost
and in electrical response as a function of applied pressure. A
PEDOT:PSS solution was mixed with KDP in different proportions.
Several resistor samples were implemented with these mixtures
736 F.A.R. Silva et al. / Applied Surface Science 255 (2008) 734–736
by painting then into a polyester sheet. Then, 1 cm  1 cm and
1.2 mm  15 mm samples were prepared and the electrical
properties were presented. Results showed the electric measure-
ments (resistance and current density) as a function of applied
pressure indicated the correlation between its mechanical and
electrical properties. Presented results indicate that studied
material could be applied in pressure sensing devices. However,
a more detailed study should be performed.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful for the financial support received
during the development of this work from CNPq and NAMITEC.
Authors also wish to thank Adson F. da Rocha Ph.D. (University of
Brasilia, Brazil) for his review of this manuscript.
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