Abstract
A p-type thermoelectric conjugated polymer based on indacenodithiophene and benzothiadiazole is designed and synthesized by replacing normal aliphatic side chains (P1) with conjugated aromatic benzene substituents (P2). The introduced bulky substituent on P2 is detrimental to form the intensified packing of polymers, therefore, it hinders the efficient transporting of the charge carriers, eventually resulting in a lower conductivity compared to that of the polymers bearing aliphatic side chains (P1). These results reveal that the modification of side chains on conjugated polymers is crucial to rationally designed thermoelectric polymers with high performance.
Highlights
IntroductionOrganic thermoelectric materials (OTEs) (including semiconducting molecules and polymers) are becoming active materials because of the prospect of realizing lightweight, low cost, and wearable thermoelectric generators [1,2,3,4,5]. π-conjugated polymers have been widely studied as active layers in organic electronics (e.g., polymer solar cells [6], organic field-effect transistors [7], sensors [8])
Organic thermoelectric materials (OTEs) are becoming active materials because of the prospect of realizing lightweight, low cost, and wearable thermoelectric generators [1,2,3,4,5]. π-conjugated polymers have been widely studied as active layers in organic electronics
In order to expand our design strategy to other conjugated polymers, we prepared two indacenodithiophene (IDT) and benzothiadiazole (BT)-based semiconducting polymers bearing normal alkyl side chains (P1) and side chains with conjugated aromatic benzene ring (P2), and we found that the larger size aromatic side chains on P2 reduced the interchain interactions, resulting relatively lower electrical conductivities as well as lower thermoelectric performances
Summary
Organic thermoelectric materials (OTEs) (including semiconducting molecules and polymers) are becoming active materials because of the prospect of realizing lightweight, low cost, and wearable thermoelectric generators [1,2,3,4,5]. π-conjugated polymers have been widely studied as active layers in organic electronics (e.g., polymer solar cells [6], organic field-effect transistors [7], sensors [8]). In order to expand our design strategy to other conjugated polymers, we prepared two indacenodithiophene (IDT) and benzothiadiazole (BT)-based semiconducting polymers bearing normal alkyl side chains (P1) and side chains with conjugated aromatic benzene ring (P2), and we found that the larger size aromatic side chains on P2 reduced the interchain interactions, resulting relatively lower electrical conductivities as well as lower thermoelectric performances. These results indicate that the introduction of aromatic conjugated side chain does not always result in higher thermoelectric performance, and many other factors need to be taken into considerations
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