A lot of attention has been paid recently to the hardly explored use of conducting polymers as thermoelectric (TE) materials. As it is well-known, a good TE material should have a high figure of merit (ZT), that is, high electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient and low thermal conductivity. Thermal conductivity of polymers typically lies in the range of 0.1-1 W/mK, around an order of magnitude lower than the best inorganic materials. However, the electrical conductivity of polymer TEs is not as good and usually extends in a very broad range (from 10e-8 S/cm to 104 S/cm). On the other hand, the Seebeck coefficient ranges from 10 μV/K to 1000 μV/K and, as in many materials, it is not easy to achieve very high electrical conductivities without strongly decreasing the Seebeck coefficient.
(Picture of a P3HT/CNT composite TE from Bounioux et al.)
Another approach that is currently being intensively researched is the preparation of polymer-based nanocomposites, where the polymers are complimented with the properties of nanofillers such as carbon nanotubes. One of the main achievements in this strategy has been reported by See et al. who prepared composites of PEDOT:PSS with Te nanorods, which resulted in a figure of merit ZT=0.1.
If you want to gain more insight into this topic, some recent reviews has been published by He et al. and Bubnova et al.
If you want to gain more insight into this topic, some recent reviews has been published by He et al. and Bubnova et al.
