Preparation and Characterization of Te/Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):Poly(styrenesulfonate)/Cu7Te4 Ternary Composite Films for Flexible Thermoelectric Power Generator

Yao Lu; Yang Qiu; Qinglin Jiang; Kefeng Cai; Yong Du; Haijun Song; Mingyuan Gao; Changjun Huang; Jiaqing He; Dehua Hu

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b15252

Preparation and Characterization of Te/Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):Poly(styrenesulfonate)/Cu₇Te₄ Ternary Composite Films for Flexible Thermoelectric Power Generator

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Dec 12;10(49):42310-42319. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b15252. Epub 2018 Nov 29.

Authors

Yao Lu¹, Yang Qiu², Qinglin Jiang³, Kefeng Cai¹, Yong Du⁴, Haijun Song¹, Mingyuan Gao¹, Changjun Huang¹, Jiaqing He², Dehua Hu³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Civil Engineering Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science & Engineering , Tongji University , 4800 Caoan Road , Shanghai 201804 , China.
² Physics Department , Southern University of Science and Technology , 1088 Xueyuan Avenue , Shenzhen 518055 , China.
³ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices , South China University of Technology , Guangzhou 510640 , China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering , Shanghai Institute of Technology , Shanghai 201418 , China.

PMID: 30430824
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b15252

Abstract

In this work, Te/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS)/Cu₇Te₄ ternary thermoelectric (TE) nanocomposite films were successfully fabricated by physical mixing and then drop casting. An optimum power factor of 65.3 μW/mK² was acquired from a composite film containing 95 wt % PEDOT:PSS-coated Te (PC/Te) nanorods at 300 K, which was about 5 times as large as that of the PC/Cu₇Te₄ nanorod film and about 3 times as large as that of the PC/Te nanorod film. The power factor reached 112.3 μW/mK² when the temperature was 380 K. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and high-resolution STEM were used to observe the detailed internal microstructure of the composite film, revealing that the Te nanorods were single crystalline and the Cu₇Te₄ rods polycrystalline. The composite film was in fact a three-dimensional network interconnected with the PC/Te and PC/Cu₇Te₄ nanorods. The enhancement of the TE properties was ascribed to the synergetic effect of the two kinds of nanorods and the double-carrier filtering effect at the two heterointerfaces of Te/PEDOT:PSS and Cu₇Te₄/PEDOT:PSS. An eight single-leg flexible TE device consisting of the optimized composite film was fabricated, which produced a voltage of 31.2 mV and a maximum output power of 94.7 nW at a temperature gradient of 39 K.

Keywords: PEDOT:PSS; copper telluride; flexible; tellurium; thermoelectric.