Fabrication of Patterned Conducting Polymers on Insulating Polymeric Substrates by Electric-Field-Assisted Assembly and Pattern Transfer

The use of electrostatically addressable templates for the directed assembly of conducting polymers and pattern transfer to another polymer substrate is demonstrated. Doped conducting polyaniline was selectively assembled on the patterned template assisted by a DC electric field. Adding an insulated silicon dioxide layer onto the surface of the silicon wafer is critical to the formation of patterned PANi rather than a PANi film. After deposition, it was demonstrated that by compression molding or solution casting methods, patterned PANi can be completely transferred to a secondary polymer substrate, such as an NBR sheet or a polyurethane film. The conductivity of PANi lines on the PU film was found to be as high as 0.87 S · cm−1. The simple one‐step assembly process for patterning conductive polymers and transfer provides a promising nanomanufacturing approach for cost‐effective and high performance flexible nanoelectronics and biosensors. Optical image of PANi‐assembled templates with patterned gold lines connected to negative electrodes at 10 V for 1 min.