Abstract
AbstractTo realize thermoelectric textiles that can convert body heat to electricity, fibers with excellent mechanical and thermoelectric properties are needed. Although poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is among the most promising organic thermoelectric materials, reports that explore its use for thermoelectric fibers are all but absent. Herein, the mechanical and thermoelectric properties of wet‐spun PEDOT:PSS fibers are reported, and their use in energy‐harvesting textiles is discussed. Wet‐spinning into sulfuric acid results in water‐stable semicrystalline fibers with a Young's modulus of up to 1.9 GPa, an electrical conductivity of 830 S cm−1, and a thermoelectric power factor of 30 μV m−1 K−2. Stretching beyond the yield point as well as repeated tensile deformation and bending leave the electrical properties of these fibers almost unaffected. The mechanical robustness/durability and excellent underwater stability of semicrystalline PEDOT:PSS fibers, combined with a promising thermoelectric performance, opens up their use in practical energy‐harvesting textiles, as illustrated by an embroidered thermoelectric fabric module.
Highlights
Schematics of wet-spinning: 1) aqueous PEDOT:PSS dispersion is wet-spun into sulfuric acid coagulation bath and 2) the fiber remains in the coagulation bath for 6 h and is rinsed with deionized water
Removed a certain portion of the water from a commercial PEDOT:PSS dispersion through solvent evaporation prior to spinning, which resulted in a solid content of 2.2–2.6%
We have demonstrated that wet-spinning of PEDOT:PSS into sulfuric acid is suitable for the preparation of robust conducting polymer fibers that combine promising mechanical/ environmental durability and electrical/thermoelectric performance
Summary
We prepared up to 10 cm long semicrystalline fibers by wetspinning of an aqueous PEDOT:PSS dispersion into aqueous SA, where as-spun fibers remained for 6 h, followed by rinsing with deionized water and drying in air (Scheme 1). As depicted in the scheme (Figure 1d), injection of the PEDOT:PSS dispersion into the sulfuric acid causes the removal of water molecules and loosely bound PSS chains, leading to semicrystalline PEDOT:PSS fibers with moderate orientation along the fiber axis. Considering the fiber thinning during tensile stretching due to the Poisson effect, it is clear that the dimension-normalized electrical conductivity is increased by stretching, which can be attributed to the alignment of PEDOT chains induced by tensile strain (Figure 2a,b).[13,29] To further examine how PEDOT:PSS fibers respond to repeated mechanical stress, we carried out a series of cyclic tensile deformation and bending tests. Despite the uptake of PEI by the bulk fibers, we observed increased mechanical properties upon dedoping, for instance, an increase in Young’s modulus from 1.9 to 4 GPa for fibers wet-spun into 95% SA (Figure S4, Supporting Information).
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