Color-changeable gold luster film based on polyaniline and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)

Highlights: • Gold-like luster is prepared by two types of organic materials. • Gold to green color switch by voltage variation. • Color change has high reversibility and efficiency. -- Abstract: Gold is a very attractive color and has been used for accessories since ancient times. However, obtaining gold luster from organic matter is extremely rare, and only a few materials can change color from gold to another color. In this paper, we report the fabrication of a color-changeable gold-like luster film from a polyaniline (PANI) film and a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) film by electropolymerization. The PANI/PEDOT composite film showed a gold-like luster at 1.0 V, and turned metallic green at −0.5 V. The color-changeable composite film can change appearance from gold-like luster to metallic green continuously, using only common organic polymers. The color-changeable composite film is expected to be used not only in painting materials, but also in display technologies owing to the color-changeable function.