ICT2014 Abstracts

Thermoelectric performance of conducting polymer have attracted great attention due to their low intrinsic thermal conductivity and good electrical conductivity, especially for polyaniline (PANi) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxthiophene) (PEDOT). PEDOT has yielded a great ZT by an accurate control of the oxidation level and achieved a higher ZT with poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS) at room temperature. For PANi, its electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient are strongly dependent on the doping ionic type and concentration. The de-doping process can efficiently increase the Seebeck coefficient of PANi with the reduction of electrical conductivity. The combination of PEDOT:PSS and PANi may be a good strategy to improve the performance of organic thermoelectric material. In our work, we prepared the PEDOT:PSS-doped PANi nanowise (PANi-NW/PEDOT:PSS) composite material with the second dopant of DMSO. PANi nanowise (PANi-NW) was obtained using ammonium persulfate as an oxidant based on the previous report. We found that PEDOT:PSS obviously enhanced the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of PANi-NW. Moreover, they gradually increase as the increasing PEDOT:PSS in PANi-NW and reach its maximum at 30 wt.% PEDOT:PSS (20 S cm^-1). After adding DMSO, the electrical conductivity of PANi-NW/PEDOT:PSS (30 wt.% PEDOT:PSS) shows a slight increase. Also, no significant difference can be observed for Seebeck coefficient. Interestingly, the de-doped PANi-NW with PEDOT:PSS (30 wt.% PEDOT:PSS + 10 vol.% DMSO) yield a higher Seebeck coefficient (~15 μV K^-1) than doped PANi-NW/PEDOT:PSS (~5 μV K^-1). Therefore, the Seebeck coefficient of de-doped PANi-NW has good adjustability, but this composite strategy for thermoelectric performance improvement, to be further assessment and experimental.