Conductive polymer composition, coated article, and patterning process

A conductive polymer composition comprising:

• (A) a π-conjugated conductive polymer having at least one repeating unit shown by the following general formulae (1-1), (1-2), and (1-3),
• wherein “X” represents S, O, Se, Te, or NR5;
• R1 and R2 each independently represents a hydrogen atom, a hydroxy group, a halogen atom, or a linear, branched, or cyclic monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms and optionally containing a heteroatom;
• R1 and R2 may be bonded to each other at any positions to form a ring;
• and R5 represents a hydrogen atom, a linear or branched saturated or unsaturated alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, or a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group having 6 to 10 carbon atoms;
• (B) a dopant polymer which contains a repeating unit shown by the following general formula (2), and the dopant polymer has a weight-average molecular weight in a range of 1,000 to 500,000,
• wherein R3 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group;
• R4 represents a single bond, an ester group, or a linear, branched, or cyclic hydrocarbon group having 1 to 12 carbon atoms and optionally containing either or both of an ether group and an ester group;
• “Z” represents a phenylene group, a naphthylene group, or an ester group;
• and “a” is 0≤a≤1.0;
• and
• (C) an amphoteric ion compound shown by the following general formula (3), wherein the component (C) is present in the polymer composition in an amount of 1 to 70 parts by mass based on 100 parts by mass of the combined amounts of the component (A) and the component (B),
• wherein RC1 to RC3 each independently represents a hydrogen atom, or a linear, branched, or cyclic monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms and optionally substituted by a heteroatom or optionally interposed by a heteroatom;
• RC1 and RC2, or RC1, RC2, and RC3 may be bonded to each other to form a ring with A+ in the formula;
• A+ is a heteroatom and represents a monovalent cation;
• “k” represents an integer of 1 to 8;
• “L” represents a carbon atom or a heteroatom, and may contain the both of them when “k” is 2 or more;
• RC4 and RC5 independently represent a hydrogen atom, a hydroxy group, an amino group, or a linear, branched, or cyclic monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms and optionally interposed by a heteroatom;
• RC4 and RC5 may be bonded to each other to form a ring, and adjoining RC4 may be bonded to each other to form a ring when “k” is 2 or more;
• RC4 and RC5 may be bonded to an oxygen atom or a nitrogen atom to form a double bond, and when RC4 and RC5 form a double bond with the nitrogen atom, the nitrogen atom can be an ion;
• “L” may form a double bond with adjoining A+, and adjoining “L” may form a double bond with each other when “k” is 2 or more;
• any of RC1 to RC3 may be bonded to RC4 or RC5 to form a ring;
• and B− is a monovalent anionic functional group and represents a carboxylate ion or a sulfonate ion.