Interfacial Interactions in Polymer-Nanocrystal Thermoelectric Composites Provide a Novel Route for Power Factor Enhancement

The highest performing thermoelectric materials currently available are fabricated via expensive high-temperature vacuum processing techniques. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the thermoelectric properties of solution-processable materials, which have the potential to dramatically reduce module fabrication costs. These solution-processed materials however often exhibit poor transport properties, which undermines their competitive advantage over the more traditional expensive thermoelectric materials. Here, we present the thermoelectric transport properties of a new class of solution-processable conducting-polymer/inorganic composite materials as a function of nanocrystal loading. In the Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and Tellurium nanowire composite devices fabricated for this study, the thermoelectric performance of the composite exceeds that of either pure organic or inorganic component alone. This result suggests an interface-driven mechanism for this enhanced performance and provides an exciting route for improving the power factors of organic-inorganic hybrid thermoelectrics.