Hydrogen peroxide (aqueous solution of H₂O₂) is one of the most used reagents i n medical sterilization, environmental disinfection, food storage, and other fields. However, hydrogen peroxide has the potential to cause serious harm to biological health and environmental safety. There are many methods (especially electrochemistry) for H₂O₂ detection in liquid phase systems, but a lack of methods for vapor detection. This is due to its colorless and tasteless nature, as well as the oxidative activity of the molecule and its coexistence with humidity. In this study, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), one of the most commercially successful and widely used conductive polymers, was employed to fabricate an all-organic chemiresistive sensor for simple, real-time, and on-site sensing of hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) at room temperature. In comparison with pristine PEDOT:PSS film, the PEDOT:PSS/PEDOT film was prepared by in situ electrochemical polymerization. Upon exposure to different concentrations of HPV, it was found that the hydrophobic and porous PEDOT layer could weaken the interference of humidity in HPV sensing, resulting in a more sensitive and accurate response. At 1.0 ppm HPV concentration, the resistance signal response was increased by nearly 89% compared with the pristine PEDOT:PSS film. This PEDOT-film-based chemiresistive sensor showcases the possibility for further development of nonenzymatic HPV monitoring technology.

The precise control and monitoring of pH values remain critical for many chemical, physiological and biological processes. Perylene diimide (PDI)-based molecules and materials exhibit excellent thermal, chemical and photochemical stability, unique UV-vis absorption and fluorescent emission properties, low cytotoxicity, as well as intrinsic electron-withdrawing (n-type semiconductor) nature and impressive molecular assembly capability. These features combined enable promising applications of PDIs in chemosensors via optical signal modulations (e.g., fluorescent or colorimetric). One of the typical applications lies in the probing of pH under various conditions, which in turn helps monitor the extracellular (environmental) and intracellular pH change and pH-relying molecular recognition of inorganic or organic ions, as well as biological species, and so on. In this review, we give a special overview of the recent progress in PDI-based optical chemosensors for pH probing in various aqueous and binary water–organic media. Specific emphasis will be given to the key design roles of sensing materials regarding the architectures and the corresponding sensing mechanisms for a sensitive and selective pH response. The molecular design of PDIs and structural optimization of their assemblies in order to be suitable for sensing various pH ranges as applied in diverse scenarios will be discussed in detail. Moreover, the future perspective will be discussed, focusing on the current key challenges of PDI-based chemosensors in pH monitoring and the potential approach of new research, which may help address the challenges.

Conducting polymers represent a crucial class of functional materials with widespread applications in diverse fields. Among these, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and its derivatives have garnered significant attention due to their distinctive optical, electronic, and magnetic properties, as well as their exceptional tunability. These properties often exhibit intricate interdependencies, manifesting as synergistic, concomitant, or antagonistic relationships. In optics, PEDOTs are renowned for their high transparency and unique photoelectric responses. From an electrical perspective, they display exceptional conductivity, thermoelectric, and piezoelectric performance, along with notable electrochemical activity and stability, enabling a wide array of electronic applications. In terms of magnetic properties, PEDOTs demonstrate outstanding electromagnetic shielding efficiency and microwave absorption capabilities. Moreover, these properties can be precisely tailored through molecular structure modifications, chemical doping, and composite formation to suit various application requirements. This review systematically examines the mechanisms underlying the optoelectromagnetic properties of PEDOTs, highlights their tunability, and outlines prospective research directions. By providing critical theoretical insights and technical references, this review aims to advance the application landscape of PEDOTs.

Despite the fact that PEDOT:PSS has been successfully used in the field of flexible electronics, some of its applications in the domain of rigid conductive coating have been limited by the pricey cost and subpar mechanical properties (hardness, adhesion, and moisture absorption) of the commercially available Clevios™ PH 1000, as well as the poor conductivity, film formation, and mechanical properties of the self-made PEDOT:PSS. In the process of investigating the low-cost preparation of PEDOT-based conductive polymer coatings, we discovered that self-made PEDOT:PSS, a waterborne epoxy resin, and a bio-based epoxy curing agent can be blended uniformly to produce good film-forming conductive coatings. Later, the addition of KH560-modified nano-SiO₂ further improved the coating’s hardness while ensuring a modest increase in conductivity. Meanwhile, the inadequacies of the epoxy resin, which are not UV-resistant, were considerably improved by the synergistic action of PEDOT:PSS and the modified SiO₂. The result is a low-cost method designed for creating conductive coatings that are UV-resistant and may be utilized for electromagnetic, electrothermal, and antistatic shielding applications. Such a PEDOT:PSS/epoxy composite system and its design approach will broaden the scope of PEDOT:PSS’s application and will inspire future research in and practical implementations of PEDOT:PSS-based conducting coatings.

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is commonly used as an oxidizing, bleaching, or antiseptic agent. It is also hazardous at increased concentrations. It is therefore crucial to monitor the presence and concentration of H₂O₂, particularly in the vapor phase. However, it remains a challenge for many state-of-the-art chemical sensors (e.g., metal oxides) to detect hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) because of the interference of moisture in the form of humidity. Moisture, in the form of humidity, is guaranteed to be present in HPV to some extent. To meet this challenge, herein, we report a novel composite material based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) doped with ammonium titanyl oxalate (ATO). This material can be fabricated as a thin film on electrode substrates for use in chemiresistive sensing of HPV. The adsorbed H₂O₂ will react with ATO, causing a colorimetric response in the material body. Combining colorimetric and chemiresistive responses resulted in a more reliable dual-function sensing method that improved the selectivity and sensitivity. Moreover, the composite film of PEDOT:PSS-ATO could be coated with a layer of pure PEDOT via in situ electrochemical synthesis. The pure PEDOT layer was hydrophobic, shielding the sensor material underneath from coming into contact with moisture. This was shown to mitigate the interference of humidity when detecting H₂O₂. A combination of these material properties makes the double-layer composite film, namely PEDOT:PSS-ATO/PEDOT, an ideal sensor platform for the detection of HPV. For example, upon a 9 min exposure to HPV at a concentration of 1.9 ppm, the electrical resistance of the film increased threefold, surpassing the bounds of the safety threshold. Meanwhile, the colorimetric response observed was 2.55 (defined as the color change ratio), a ratio at which the color change could be easily seen by the naked eye and quantified. We expect that this reported dual-mode sensor will find extensive practical applications in the fields of health and security with real-time, onsite monitoring of HPV.

Compared with other gas-phase analytes, the coexistence and competing effect of the moisture component has long created great difficulty and technical challenges for the reliable detection of chemically oxidizing active H₂O₂ vapor (HPV). Recently, our group designed and prepared a chemiresistive sensor based on conductive films of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), and PEDOT:PSS/PEDOT to achieve direct detection of HPV at the ppm level. Specially, the hydrophobic PEDOT layer was polymerized on the surface of the PEDOT:PSS film using the electrochemical method to attenuate the adverse effect of moisture within HPV on the stability and detection performance of the PEDOT:PSS/PEDOT sensing film.