Institut Charles Sadron News

N-type doped polymers are key to fabricate thermoelectric generators that can transform waste heat into electricity. A collaboration between the SYCOMMOR team of ICS and researchers from the University of Tours  (GREMAN and PCM2E) demonstrate a new and original method to produce n-type conducting polymers. Combination of p->n polarity switching and polymer alignment of a low bandgap polymer produces n-type-like conducting polymers with enhanced thermoelectric power factors up to 10 µW K^-2 m^-1. A theoretical framework is proposed to account for the observed polarity switching mechanism. These results  have just been published in the journal Advanced Electronic Materialsand were obtained in the frame of the ANISOTHERM project funded by ANR.