nm4bl2104 – 3D Printing of pedot:pss conductive polymer by digital light processing for application in bioelectronics

Poster_Naroa-Lopez-Larrea
3D PRINTING OF PEDOT:PSS CONDUCTIVE POLYMER BY DIGITAL LIGHT PROCESSING FOR APPLICATION IN BIOELECTRONICS
Naroa Lopez-Larrea1, Miryam Criado-Gonzalez1, Bastien Marchiori2, Isabel del Agua2, Antonio Dominguez-Alfaro1, Nuria Alegret1 and David Mecerreyes1,3
1 POLYMAT University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Avenida de Tolosa 72, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
2 Panaxium SAS, Aix-en-Provence 13100, France
3 Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
Email: naroa.lopez@polymat.eu, david.mecerreyes@ehu.es
Conducting polymers (CPs) such as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), polypyrrole (PPy) or polyaniline (PANi) have been attracting increased interest for the development of several (bio-opto)electronic and energy devices, i.e, electrodes, biosensors, electronic skin, wearable electronics, human motion sensors, health monitoring or soft robotics due to their biocompatibility and good electrical conductivity.
However, most of the current devices made of PEDOT thin films possess uncontrollable geometries and architectures that lead to poor mechanical properties and ion/electronic diffusion limitations.[1,2] Therefore, the design of disruptive custom electronic devices is in the process of a transformation from traditional 2D thin films to shape conformable three-dimensional (3D) structures. Traditional manufacturing methods, including solvent casting or spin-coating, are not able to fulfil the third dimension requirement, being necessary the application of new technologies to yield materials with high spatial resolution, as it is the case of 3D printing techniques.
Here we introduce a 3D printable conducting polymer ink based on PEDOT:PSS aqueous dispersion. The 3D printing method used to create high conductive hydrogel pieces is digital light processing (DLP), which uses light to photopolymerize the desirable ink, leading to a layer by layer built material. In this way, hydrogels of 200 μm resolution have been synthetized in an effective manner, leading to flexible and high electrical conductivity materials. Moreover, these materials have been used as electrodes for successful electrocardiography (ECG) recordings, whose signals are comparable to those of medical electrodes.
[1] Criado-Gonzalez, M.; Dominguez-Alfaro, A.; Lopez-Larrea, N.; Alegret, N.; Mecerreyes, D., Additive Manufacturing of Conducting Polymers: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities, ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2021, 3, 6, 2865–2883.
[2] Luque, G.C.; Picchio, M.L.; Martins, A.P.S.; Dominguez-Alfaro, A.; Ramos, N.; del Agua, I.; Marchiori, B.; Mecerreyes, D.; Minari, R.J.; Tomé, L.C., 3D Printable and Biocompatible Iongels for Body Sensor Applications, Adv. Electron. Mater. 2021, 2100178.