High Seebeck effects from conducting polymer: Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) based thin-film device with hybrid metal/polymer/metal architecture
Abstract
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 252 μV/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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 22, 2012
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4761954
Entities
People
- Bin Hu
- Hsin Wang
- Ilia N Ivanov
- Michael G Stanford
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- University of Tennessee