Bi2Te3 nanowires tuning PEDOT:PSS structure for significant enhancing electrical transport property

Abstract

We developed Bi2Te3 nanowires (NWs)/poly (3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) with a high power factor (PF) value of 170 μW·m−1·K−2 by a simple pulling method, which is an 85-fold improvement over PEDOT:PSS. The XRD, FTIR, UV–vis-NIR, XPS, FESEM, and NanoMap co-confirm the significant increase in electrical transport performance mainly attribute to two vital factors. First, the π bond of PEDOT:PSS interacts with the van der Waals force between the Te atom layer of Bi2Te3 NWs in the composite film, which makes PEDOT:PSS change from benzene type structure to quinone type structure with high conductivity. Second, the energy filtering effect generated by the interfacial barrier between Bi2Te3 NWs and PEDOT:PSS promotes the increase of seebeck coefficient.