Facile fabrication of highly flexible,porous PEDOT: PSS/SWCNTs films for thermoelectric applications

High-performance organic composite thermoelectric(TE)materials are considered as a promising alternative for harvesting heat energy.Herein,composite films of poly(3,4-ethyienedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)/single-walled carbon nanotubes(PEDOT:PSS/SWCNTs)were fabricated by utilizing a convenient solution mixing method.Thereafter,the as-prepared hybrid films were treated using sulfuric acid(H₂SO₄)to further optimize the TE performance.Film morphological studies revealed that the sulfuric acid treated PEDOT:PSS/SWCNTs composite samples all possessed porous structures.Due to the successful fabrication of highly conductive networks,the porous nano-architecture also exhibited much more excellent TE properties when compared with the dense structure of the pristine samples.For the post-treated sample,a high power factor of 156.43μW·m^-1·K^-2can be achieved by adjusting the content of CNTs,which is approximately 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of the corresponding untreated samples(0.23μW·m^-1·K^-2).Besides,the obtained films also showed excellent mechanical flexibility,owing to the porous nanostructure and the strong p–p interactions between the two components.This work indicates that the H₂SO₄ treatment could be a promising strategy for fabricating highly-flexible and porous PEDOT:PSS/SWCNTs films with high TE performances.