Fabricate organic thermoelectric modules use modified PCBM and PEDOT：PSS materials

• Published in: Frontiers of Optoelectronics (Online) Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 117 - 123
• Main Authors: GAO, Feng, LIU, Yuchun, XIONG, Yan, WU, Ping, HU, Bin, XU, Ling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Higher Education Press 01.06.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: [6.6]-phenyl-C61butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM); Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Butyric acid; Electric potential; Electrical Engineering; Electrical resistivity; Engineering; Modules; organic thermoelectric generator; Physics; poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT-PSS); Polystyrene resins; Research Article; Temperature gradients; thermocouple; Thermoelectricity; organic thermoelectric generator; thermocouple; [6.6]-phenyl-C61butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM); poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT-PSS)
• ISSN: 2095-2759; 2095-2767
• DOI: 10.1007/s12200-017-0712-x

In this paper, we fabricated an organic thermo- electric （TE） device with modified [6,6]-phenyl-C61- butyric acid methyl ester （PCBM） and poly（3,4-ethylene- dioxythiophene） polystyrene sulfonate （PEDOT：PSS）; the device showed good stability in air condition. For n-leg, PCBM were doped with acridine orange base （3,6-bis （dimethylamino）acridine） （AOB） and 1,3-dimethyl-2,3- dihydro- 1H-benzoimidazole （N-DMBI）. Co-doped PCBM utilizes synergistic effects of AOB and N-DMBI, resulting in excellent electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient values reaching 2 S/cm and -500 μV/K, respectively, at room temperature with dopant molar ratio of 0.11. P-type leg used modified PEDOT：PSS. Based on modified PCBM and PEDOT：PSS materials, we fabricated a TE module device with 48 p-type and n-type thermocouple and tested their output voltage, short current, and power. Output voltage measured -0.82 V, and generated power reached almost 945 μW with 75 K temperature gradient at 453 K hot-side temperature. These promising results showed potential of modified PEDOT and PCBM as TE materials for application in device optimization.