Synergistically Improved Molecular Doping and Carrier Mobility by Copolymerization of Donor–Acceptor and Donor–Donor Building Blocks for Thermoelectric Application

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, it is demonstrated that random copolymerization is a simple but effective strategy to obtain new conductive copolymers as high‐performance thermoelectric materials. By using a polymerizing acceptor unit diketopyrropyrrole with donor units thienothiophene and oligo ethylene glycol substituted bithiophene (g32T), it is found that strong interchain donor–acceptor interactions ensure good film crystallinity for charge transport, while donor–donor type building blocks contribute to effective charge transfers. Hall effect measurements show that the high electrical conductivity results from increased free carriers with simultaneously improved mobility reaching over 1 cm2 V−1 s−1. The synergistic effect of improved molecular doping and carrier mobility, as well as a high Seebeck coefficient ascribed to the structural disorder along polymer chains via random copolymerization, results in an impressive power factor up to 110 µW K−2 m−1 which is 10 times higher than that of solution‐processed polythiophenes.