Enhanced Power Factor of PANI/GNP nanocomposites

Abstract

Nowadays, the inorganic compounds (like Bi2Te3) are the best thermoelectric materials due to their suitable thermoelectric properties for room temperature applications. Nevertheless, organic materials, like conjugated polymers, are becoming more important recently due to their increasing Figure of Merit (0.25‐0.42). Polymers generally have low thermal conductivity (©§≈0.1‐0.5W/m∙K), flexibility, environmental stability, easily doping and de‐doping, non‐toxicity, potential processing advantages (e.g. printing) and straightforward preparation in comparison with inorganic semiconductors. The increase in the Power Factor of this materials, which is given by S2¥ò, is being achieved by two mechanisms: doping the polymers or blending them with different kinds of filling materials, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene nanosheets (GN) or graphene nanoplatelets.