Bulk Doping of Millimeter-Thick Conjugated Polymer Foams for Plastic Thermoelectrics
Journal article, 2017

Foaming of plastics allows for extensive tuning of mechanical and physicochemical properties. Utilizing the foam architecture for plastic semiconductors can be used to improve ingression of external molecular species that govern the operation of organic electronic devices. In case of plastic thermoelectrics, utilizing solid semiconductors with realistic (millimeter (mm)-thick) dimensions does not permit sequential doping—while sequential doping offers the higher thermoelectric performance compared to other methods—because this doping methodology is diffusion limited. In this work, a fa brication process for poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) foams is presented, based on a combination of salt leaching and thermally induced phase separation. The obtained micro- and nanoporous architecture permits rapid and uniform doping of mm-thick foams with 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane, while thick solid P3HT structures suffer from protracted doping times and a dopant-depleted central region. Importantly, the thermoelectric performance of a P3HT foam is largely retained when normalized with regard to the quantity of used material.

poly(3-hexylthiophene)

bulk doping

conjugated polymer foam

thermal conductivity

plastic thermoelectrics

Author

Renee Kroon

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Jason Ryan

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

David Kiefer

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Liyang Yu

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Jonna Hynynen

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Eva Olsson

Chalmers, Physics, Eva Olsson Group

Christian Müller

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Advanced Functional Materials

1616-301X (ISSN) 16163028 (eISSN)

Vol. 27 47 1704183

Subject Categories

Materials Chemistry

Other Physics Topics

Areas of Advance

Materials Science

DOI

10.1002/adfm.201704183

More information

Latest update

4/5/2022 1