Owing to changes in their chemistry and structure, polymers can be fabricated to demonstrate vastly different electrical conductivities over many orders of magnitude. At the high end of conductivity is the class of conducting polymers, which are ideal candidates for many applications in low‐cost electronics. Here, we report the influence of the nature of the doping anion at high doping levels within the semi‐metallic conducting polymer poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) on its electronic transport properties. Hall effect measurements on a variety of PEDOT samples show that the choice of doping anion can lead to an order of magnitude enhancement in the charge carrier mobility > 3 cm2/Vs at conductivities approaching 3000 S/cm under ambient conditions. Grazing Incidence Wide Angle X‐ray Scattering, Density Functional Theory calculations, and Molecular Dynamics simulations indicate that the chosen doping anion modifies the way PEDOT chains stack together. This link between structure and specific anion doping at high doping levels has ramifications for the fabrication of conducting polymer‐based devices. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2018, 56, 97–104

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Nitrogen (N) as a nutrient, in the form of nitrate (NO3 −), is essential for plant growth. Chemical fertilizers are used to increase crop yields, but overuse can lead to forms of environmental pollution necessitating methods to detect and monitor the level of NO3 − in-situ in agricultural soils. Herein we report for the first time the NO3 − selectivity of the inherently conducting polymer poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). This selectivity occurs when PEDOT thin films are exposed to an aqueous environment containing not only NO3 −, but a mixture of other ions present in concentrations (ppm) typical of real agricultural soil. The PEDOT sensitivity to absorb NO3 − from solution is determined to be <1 ppm.

The use of plasma deposited organic thin films as the interlayer component in organic solar cells applications is demonstrated for the first time. Up to 20% increase in solar cell device performance was observed when an interlayer deposited from the vapor of 4-methylthiazole was used. This work demonstrates the potential of plasma deposition of organic films to be integrated in fabrication of organic solar cells with superior properties.