Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/Te/Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites with High Thermoelectric Performance Promoted by Electropolymerization

Abstract

Electrochemical polymerization has proven very effective in fabricating flexible organic/inorganic composite films with high thermoelectric (TE) performance. In this work, dynamic three-phase interfacial electropolymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) combined with physical mixing of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and tellurium nanowires was employed to prepare PEDOT/Te/SWCNT thermoelectric composites. When the loadings of Te and SWCNT were changed, the electropolymerized PEDOT exhibited great capability of improving TE properties of the resultant composites with a highest electrical conductivity (σ) of 900.3 ± 20.5 S cm^-1 and Seebeck coefficient (<i>S</i>) of 43.4 ± 0.6 μV K^-1, affording maximum power factor (PF) of 169.8 ± 7.8 μW m^-1 K^-2 at room temperature.