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Title: Tailored semiconducting carbon nanotube networks with enhanced thermoelectric properties

Abstract

Thermoelectric power generation, allowing recovery of part of the energy wasted as heat, is emerging as an important component of renewable energy and energy efficiency portfolios. Although inorganic semiconductors have traditionally been employed in thermoelectric applications, organic semiconductors garner increasing attention as versatile thermoelectric materials. Here we present a combined theoretical and experimental study suggesting that semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes with carefully controlled chirality distribution and carrier density are capable of large thermoelectric power factors, higher than 340 μW m-1 K-2, comparable to the best-performing conducting polymers and larger than previously observed for carbon nanotube films. Furthermore, we demonstrate that phonons are the dominant source of thermal conductivity in the networks, and that our carrier doping process significantly reduces the thermal conductivity relative to undoped networks. As a result, these findings provide the scientific underpinning for improved functional organic thermoelectric composites with carbon nanotube inclusions.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [3];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Republic of Korea)
  3. Univ. of Denver, Denver, CO (United States)
  4. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1246960
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5900-65863
Journal ID: ISSN 2058-7546
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Energy
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 1; Related Information: Nature Energy; Journal ID: ISSN 2058-7546
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; carbon nanotubes; carbon fullerenes; electronic materials; thermoelectrics

Citation Formats

Avery, Azure D., Zhou, Ben H., Lee, Jounghee, Lee, Eui -Sup, Miller, Elisa M., Ihly, Rachelle, Wesenberg, Devin, Mistry, Kevin S., Guillot, Sarah L., Zink, Barry L., Kim, Yong -Hyun, Blackburn, Jeffrey L., and Ferguson, Andrew J. Tailored semiconducting carbon nanotube networks with enhanced thermoelectric properties. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/nenergy.2016.33.
Avery, Azure D., Zhou, Ben H., Lee, Jounghee, Lee, Eui -Sup, Miller, Elisa M., Ihly, Rachelle, Wesenberg, Devin, Mistry, Kevin S., Guillot, Sarah L., Zink, Barry L., Kim, Yong -Hyun, Blackburn, Jeffrey L., & Ferguson, Andrew J. Tailored semiconducting carbon nanotube networks with enhanced thermoelectric properties. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.33
Avery, Azure D., Zhou, Ben H., Lee, Jounghee, Lee, Eui -Sup, Miller, Elisa M., Ihly, Rachelle, Wesenberg, Devin, Mistry, Kevin S., Guillot, Sarah L., Zink, Barry L., Kim, Yong -Hyun, Blackburn, Jeffrey L., and Ferguson, Andrew J. 2016. "Tailored semiconducting carbon nanotube networks with enhanced thermoelectric properties". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.33. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1246960.
@article{osti_1246960,
title = {Tailored semiconducting carbon nanotube networks with enhanced thermoelectric properties},
author = {Avery, Azure D. and Zhou, Ben H. and Lee, Jounghee and Lee, Eui -Sup and Miller, Elisa M. and Ihly, Rachelle and Wesenberg, Devin and Mistry, Kevin S. and Guillot, Sarah L. and Zink, Barry L. and Kim, Yong -Hyun and Blackburn, Jeffrey L. and Ferguson, Andrew J.},
abstractNote = {Thermoelectric power generation, allowing recovery of part of the energy wasted as heat, is emerging as an important component of renewable energy and energy efficiency portfolios. Although inorganic semiconductors have traditionally been employed in thermoelectric applications, organic semiconductors garner increasing attention as versatile thermoelectric materials. Here we present a combined theoretical and experimental study suggesting that semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes with carefully controlled chirality distribution and carrier density are capable of large thermoelectric power factors, higher than 340 μW m-1 K-2, comparable to the best-performing conducting polymers and larger than previously observed for carbon nanotube films. Furthermore, we demonstrate that phonons are the dominant source of thermal conductivity in the networks, and that our carrier doping process significantly reduces the thermal conductivity relative to undoped networks. As a result, these findings provide the scientific underpinning for improved functional organic thermoelectric composites with carbon nanotube inclusions.},
doi = {10.1038/nenergy.2016.33},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1246960}, journal = {Nature Energy},
issn = {2058-7546},
number = ,
volume = 1,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Apr 04 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Mon Apr 04 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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