Flexible Thermoelectric Composite Films of Polypyrrole Nanotubes Coated Paper

• Main Authors: Jun Li, Yong Du, Runping Jia, Jiayue Xu, Shirley Z. Shen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-11-01
• Series: Coatings
• Subjects: PPy nanotubes; coating; flexible; thermoelectric properties
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/7/12/211

Flexible thermoelectric composite films of polypyrrole (PPy) nanotubes coated paper were fabricated by an in-situ polymerization procedure using methyl orange as a template and paper as the substrate for the first time. Both the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of the polypyrrole nanotubes coated paper composite films have been enhanced (from ~0.048 S/cm to ~0.068 S/cm and from ~5.34 μV/K to ~8.21 μV/K for the average value for three measurements, respectively) as the temperature increased from ~300 K to ~370 K, which lead to the same trend of the power factor. The thermal conductivity of the polypyrrole nanotubes coated composite films was very low (~0.1275 W·m−1·K−1 at ~300 K), and a highest ZT (material’s dimensionless figure of merit (S2σT/κ)) value of 3.2 × 10−7 was obtained at ~370 K.