A PEDOT:PSS thermoelectric fiber generator

Abstract

Organic thermoelectric (TE) fibers, that combine the impressive structural features and high heat-to-electricity conversion capability, have made great achievements in recent years, while convenient and efficient preparation of flexible polymer fibers remains a great challenge. Herein, flexible poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) fibers are efficiently produced through a convenient freeze-thaw (FT) induced gelation and subsequent high speed wet-spinning process. The spinnability and TE properties of the resultant PEDOT:PSS spinning dopes are obviously improved by regulating the FT cycles, the extrusion velocity, the length/diameter ratio of the needle, as well as the type of coagulation bath. Accordingly, the optimized PEDOT:PSS fiber obtained at a pretty high extrusion speed (150 mm min−1 or 1037 mL h−1) exhibits a considerably high electrical conductivity of 1013 ± 32 S cm−1, which outperforms most wet-spinning PEDOT:PSS fibers reported so far, and also displays excellent mechanically-stable TE properties upon large mechanical bending or twisting deformation. Based on the PEDOT:PSS fibers, a simple and flexible TE generator is further assembled, which can generate stable output performance by harvesting human body heat or low temperature of ice cube, indicating its good adaptability to various scenarios. This work provides a novel, convenient, and effective approach to develop the PEDOT:PSS fibers and versatile fiber-based TE devices.