Enhancing the conductivity and thermoelectric performance of semicrystalline conducting polymers through controlled tie chain incorporation
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Conjugated polymers are promising materials for thermoelectric applications, however, at present few effective and well understood strategies exist to further advance their thermoelectric performance. Here we report a new model system for better understanding the key factors governing their thermoelectric properties: aligned, ribbon-phase poly[2,5-bis(3-dodecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene] (PBTTT) doped by ion-exchange doping. Using a range of microstructural and spectroscopic methods we study the effect of controlled incorporation of tie-chains between the crystalline domains through blending of high and low molecular weight chains. The tie chains provide efficient transport pathways between crystalline domains and lead to significantly enhanced electrical conductivity of 4810.1 S/cm, that is not accompanied by a reduction in Seebeck coefficient nor a large increase in thermal conductivity. We demonstrate respectable power factors of 172.6 µW m-1 K-2 in this model system. Our approach is generally applicable to a wide range of semicrystalline conjugated polymers and could provide an effective pathway for further enhancing their thermoelectric properties and overcome traditional trade-offs in optimization of thermoelectric performance.
Date Issued
2024-07
Date Acceptance
2024-04-01
Citation
Advanced Materials, 2024, 36 (28)
ISSN
0935-9648
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Advanced Materials
Volume
36
Issue
28
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38669281
Subjects
ion exchange doping
Organic thermoelectrics
polymer alignment
tie chains
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Germany
Article Number
2310480
Date Publish Online
2024-04-26