Electrochemical doping tuning of flexible polypyrrole film with enhanced thermoelectric performance

As a promising candidate for renewable-energy, organic thermoelectric (TE) materials have received tremendous research interests because of their ability to satisfy the urgent demands of mitigating the energy crisis. Polypyrrole (PPy), as one of the most significant organic conducting polymers, is applied widely in actuators, solid electrolytic capacitors, and so on. PPy was synthesized as free-standing films by electrodeposition in the mixed electrolyte system of boron fluoride diethyl etherate (BFEE) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) with different volume ratios and then systematic studied PPy films TE performance. Be regarded as an effective strategy, electrochemical treatment was selected in this study to further improve the TE performance of PPy film. Finally, the electrical conductivity increased approximately three-fold, the Seebeck coefficient increased nearly twice, the power factor enhanced by about six times. Therefore, this work will provide an important reference for optimizing the thermoelectric properties of conducting polymer through electrochemical treatment.