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Polymer Chemistry 2018
Polymer Sciences
ISSN: 2471-9935
Page 36
March 26-28, 2018
Vienna, Austria
3
rd
Edition of International Conference and Exhibition on
Polymer Chemistry
T
hermoelectric materials could be applied as thermal
power generators to convert heat directly into electrical
energy or as a solid state Peltier cooler. In general, traditional
thermoelectric materials include alloy such as Bi
2
Te
3
,
Sb
2
Te
3
PbTe, etc. Recently, conducting polymer-based
semiconductors have been gradually receiving much attention
as conducting polymers are able to offer many advantages
such as low cost, lightweight, flexibility and solution-process
fabrication. In addition, conducting polymeric materials with
intrinsically low thermal conductivity, which is over two to
three orders of magnitude lower than that of commercial
inorganic materials, make them as potential candidates for
high performance thermoelectric applications. However, the
efficiency of conducting polymeric materials is still much
lower than that of inorganic counterparts such as Bi
2
Te
3
and Sb
2
Te
3
. The thermoelectric performance of a material is
usually judged by a dimensionless thermoelectric figure of
merit (ZT), which is calculated in terms of ZT = S
2
σT/κ, where
S, σ, T and κ are the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity,
absolute temperature and thermal conductivity, respectively.
As the thermal conductivity of conducting polymers is usually
less than 1 W/mK, much work is focused on how to enhance
the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient or how to
obtain a proper balance between electrical conductivity and
Seebeck coefficient so as to achieve thermoelectric materials
with a high ZT value. This presentation will highlight recent
advances of highly conductive polymers including poly(3,4-
ethylenedioxythiophene) and related analogous polymers for
thermoelectric applications.
Biography
Jianwei Xu is currently a Principal Scientist, Strategic Research Councillor
at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for
Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and he is an Adjunct Research
Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the National Univer-
sity of Singapore (NUS). He is also Program Manager of the Hybrid Ther-
moelectric Program of Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC),
A*STAR. His research interests include: functional π molecular and conju-
gated polymer materials for electrochromic and thermoelectric applica-
tions, organic-inorganic hybrid materials and aggregation-induced emission
(AIE)-active materials.
jw-xu@imre.a-sta.edu.sgHighly conducting polymers for thermoelectric applications
Jianwei Xu
Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore
Jianwei Xu, Polym Sci, Volume 4
DOI: 10.4172/2471-9935-C1-008