High Seebeck effects from conducting polymer: Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) based thin-film device with hybrid metal/polymer/metal architecture

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4761954· OSTI ID:1057951

Stanford, Michael G ^[1]; Wang, Hsin ^[1]; Ivanov, Ilia N ^[1]; Hu, Bin ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

Conductive polymers are of particular interest for thermoelectric applications due to their low thermal conductivity and relatively high electrical conductivity. In this study, commercially available conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) was used in a hybrid metal/polymer/metal thin film design in order to achieve a high Seebeck coefficient with the value of 252lV/k on a relatively low temperature scale. Polymer film thickness was varied in order to investigate its influence on the Seebeck effect. The high Seebeck coefficient indicates that the metal/polymer/metal design can develop a large entropy difference in internal energy of charge carriers between high and low-temperature metal electrodes to develop electrical potential due to charge transport in conducting polymer film through metal/polymer interface. Therefore, the metal/polymer/metal structure presents a new design to combine inorganic metals and organic polymers in thin-film form to develop Seebeck devices

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). High Temperature Materials Lab. (HTML)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1057951
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 17; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

polythiophene
organic photovoltaics