journal article·2017-08

An effective dual-solvent treatment for improving the thermoelectric property of PEDOT:PSS with white graphene

Xiaodong Wang, Fanling Meng, Haitong Tang, Zhongmin Gao, Si Li, Fengxing Jiang, Jingkun Xu

Journal of Materials Science· Volume 52· Issue 16
Publisher page

Abstract

An effective strategy combining dual-solvent treatment and composite has been proposed to improve the thermoelectric property of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). Firstly, a composite method with two-dimensional (2D) boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs), also known as white graphene, was first proposed to improve the Seebeck coefficient of PEDOT:PSS thin film based on an energy filtering effect at the conjunctions. BNNSs were obtained by a facile liquid exfoliation method. Further, a dual-solvent treatment incorporating N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was performed to optimize the electrical conductivity of PEDOT:PSS/BNNSs hybrid thin films. On the one hand, DMF as first treatment can effectively remove part of the redundant non-conductive PSS leading to an increased electrical conductivity. On the other hand, DMSO as second treatment induced a transformation of PEDOT from benzoid to quinoid structure, resulting in a further enhanced electrical conductivity without a reduction in Seebeck coefficient for PEDOT:PSS/BNNSs. Eventually, a remarkable improvement in thermoelectric power factor was achieved to be 100.1 μW m−1 K−2 and a large figure of merit (ZT) was estimated to be 0.12 for PEDOT:PSS/BNNSs5 hybrid thin film at room temperature.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices · Conducting polymers and applications · Thermal properties of materials

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