Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/Te/Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Composites with High Thermoelectric Performance Promoted by Electropolymerization

Electrochemical polymerization has proven very effective in fabricating flexible organic/inorganic composite films with high thermoelectric (TE) performance. In this work, dynamic 3-phase interfacial electropolymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) combined with physical mixing of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and tellurium nanowires was employed to prepare PEDOT/Te/SWCNT thermoelectric composites. Upon changing loadings of Te and SWCNT, the electropolymerized PEDOT exhibited great capability of improving TE properties of the resultant composites with highest electrical conductivity (σ) of 900.3 ± 20.5 S cm-1 and Seebeck coefficient (S) of 43.4 ± 0.6 μV K-1, affording maximum power factor (PF) of 169.8 ± 7.8 μW m-1 K-2 at room temperature.