Prospective on doping engineering of conductive polymers for enhanced interfacial properties

Conductive polymers that combine the advantages of traditional polymers and organic conductors have recently received more and more attention in applications such as sensors, smart electronics, display, and energy conversion/storage. Interface properties including conductivity, mechanical properties, and mass transport/immobilization are key factors affecting the performance of these devices. Doping engineering provides an effective method to enhance interface properties of conducting polymers and bring new functions for practical applications. In this Perspective, we review some application examples of doping-tunable interfacial properties of conducting polymers with advanced features, i.e., enhancing conductivity by doping; tunable self-assembly of conductive polymers; structure-derived elasticity and its application in flexible pressure sensors; and enhanced interfacial transport and its applications in biosensors and lithium ion battery. Furthermore, this Perspective also discusses the challenges of this field and some possible solutions.