Manufacturing Poly(3,4‐Ethylenedioxythiophene) Electrocatalytic Sheets for Large‐Scale H2O2 Production.

Producing thick films of conducting polymers by a low‐cost manufacturing technique would enable new applications. However, removing huge solvent volume from diluted suspension or dispersion (1–3 wt%) in which conducting polymers are typically obtained is a true manufacturing challenge. In this work, a procedure is proposed to quickly remove water from the conducting polymer poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene:poly(4‐styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) suspension. The PEDOT:PSS suspension is first flocculated with 1 m H2SO4 transforming PEDOT nanoparticles (≈50–500 nm) into soft microparticles. A filtration process inspired by pulp dewatering in a paper machine on a wire mesh with apertures dimension between 60 µm and 0.5 mm leads to thick free‐standing films (≈0.5 mm). Wire mesh clogging that hinders dewatering (known as dead‐end filtration) is overcome by adding to the flocculated PEDOT:PSS dispersion carbon fibers that aggregate and form efficient water channels. Moreover, this enables fast formation of thick layers under simple atmospheric pressure filtration, thus making the process truly scalable. Thick freestanding PEDOT films thus obtained are used as electrocatalysts for efficient reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide, a promising green chemical and fuel. The inhomogeneity of the films does not affect their electrochemical function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]