A first dispersible PEDT powder

Ormecon recently synthesized a PEDT (the conductive polymer poly-ethylene-dioxythiophene) in powder form, which is the first PEDT powder world-wide to be dispersible. PEDT is considered to be "insoluble and infusible", which we agree to, but most people are using the same term for "not processible with solvents" or "not dispersible". The only way to use PEDT is a polymerisation of EDT in water ("with PSSH as the charge balancing dopant") and to generate a colloidal dispersion of PEDT which can be purified and used (Bayer and Agfa Gevaert, cf. Adv. Mater., 2000 (12), p. 481 - 494). When using published procedures, PEDT is in fact not only insoluble and infusible, but also definitely non-dispersible.

As a result of a longer research project, Ormeocn has succeeded to implement its synthetic principles for the manufacturing of dispersible conductive polymer powders (commercially used in the Organic Metal Polyaniline technology)  into an EDT polymerisation, and to apply appropriate dispersion methods on the powders.

Transparent clear (with a typical blue colour) dispersions in various solvents and in thermoplastic polymers like PMMA have been produced. A first presentation of these results has been made on the "Commercialising Conductive Polymers" conference Feb 11/12, 2002, in Brussels. It will need a significant additional amount of work before this new product can be applied in industrial scale.