Thermoelectric properties of composite films from multi-walled carbon nanotubes and ethyl cellulose doped with heteroatoms

Abstract Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have recently emerged as one of the most promising structures for thermoelectrics (TE). As compared with typical thermoelectric materials, CNTs can be made from almost any carbon-bearing precursor, and so at present thousands of tonnes of them are produced annually at every corner of the world. In this work, we synthesized multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) and doped them with heteroatoms of nitrogen, boron or phosphorus to tune their thermoelectric performance. The research showed that MWCNTs doped with nitrogen or boron had improved thermoelectric properties by up to three orders of magnitude as compared with the undoped material. Because of the different modes of charge transport by electrons and holes, respectively, they could be used to construct functional thermoelectric modules.