Conductive polymers for thermoelectric power generation

Abstract

In spite of the fact that conducting polymers, during the past decade, have made inroads into various flexible devices including electronics, supercapacitors, sensors, transistors and memories etc. their exploration in the field of thermoelectric power-generation has not yet been significant. This review provides a comprehensive study regarding thermoelectric performance of various conducting polymers depending upon their specific structural and physico-chemical properties. Recent trends in organic thermoelectrics are discussed as: (i) factors affecting thermoelectric performance; (ii) strategies required for improvement of the power factor (due to inherent low thermal conductivity); and (iii) challenges that still lie ahead. A detailed analysis of electrical and thermal transport-mechanisms suggests that various processes such as stretching, controlled doping and addition of inorganic materials/carbon nanostructures, may be applied for enhancement of the thermoelectric figure-of-merit. The attempts are made for highlighting as to how these conducting polymers can be realized into efficient thermoelectric generators by summarizing various reported architectural-designs. These devices have a tremendous potential for tapping low-temperature heat (e.g. body/appliances’ heat, geo-thermal/oceanic heat etc.) to power wearable medical sensors and smart electronic devices. Finally, the efforts are put together to familiarize the reader with the big breakthrough that can be created by light-weight, flexible, non-toxic conducting polymers in thermoelectric domain.