Organic thermoelectric

The ideal thermoelectric material must have high electrical conductivity, low thermal conductivity and a high power factor. This naturally raises the question of conductive polymers which have good electrical conductivity and intrinsically poor thermally conductivity. However, organic materials usually have a relatively poor Seebeck coefficient. In a recent paper published on May the 1 in Nature materials, a team from Linkoeping University lead by Xavier Crispin was able to optimize the electrical conductivity of a conducting polymer (PEDOT) through careful chemical modification, without affecting its low thermal conductivity. The thermoelectric efficiency of their material approaches ZT=0.25.