Radial thermoelectric generator fabricated from n‐ and p‐type conducting polymers

Abstract

ABSTRACTElectrically conducting polymers are attractive for thermoelectric generators (TEGs) because of their low thermal conductivity and solution processability. In this article, we report on the performance of a radial device made from n‐ and p‐type polymers printed on paper substrates. Our thermoelectric (TE) models predict an optimized geometry for a radial device that operates under natural convective cooling alone, and herein, we report on the fabrication and performance of this new organic TEG. We used poly(nickel‐1,1,2,2‐ethenetetrathiolate) blended with poly(vinylidene fluoride)/dimethyl sulfoxide as the n‐type material and poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrene sulfonate) with Tellurium nanowires as the p‐type materials coated on paper to evaluate the TE performance. The radial TEG produced an open‐circuit voltage of 85 mV and a power density of 15 nW/cm2 under a 45‐K temperature difference. This proof of concept was the first demonstration of a polymer‐based radial TEG that accommodated a hot pipe as the heat source and did not require active cooling because of heat spreading. This is promising for scalable and low cost TE devices for self‐powered sensor networks. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44060.