Electrical Conductivity of Poly(3-octylthiophene)/Au Nanocomposites

The stabilizing effect of Au nanoparticles on electrical conductivity of poly(3-octylthiophene-2,5-diyl) based composite films was investigated. For the content of Au nanoparticles 1 vol %, the turning point where the conductivity starts to decrease, shifts to 110 °C, compared with 50 °C for the neat polymer. At low temperatures, the composites show the common activation energy of conductivity Ea = 0.3 eV independent of the Au nanoparticle concentration. It corresponds to the activation energy of neat polymer and suggests that the conductivity of the composite is controlled by the same mechanism.