Conductive polymer based high-performance hybrid thermoelectrics: Polyaniline/tin(II) sulfide nanosheet composites

Composites of tin sulfide (SnS) nanosheets with conductive polyaniline (PANI) are fabricated to achieve high-performance hybrid thermoelectric materials. SnS nanosheets with lateral sizes from 200 to 500 nm are prepared from a SnS ingot by applying a Li + -intercalation and chemical exfoliation process and are incorporated with conductive PANI. The thermoelectric power factor of the SnS nanosheet/PANI composites is optimized by manipulating the content of SnS nanosheets in the composite, and the changes in the thermoelectric properties are examined and discussed with respect to the carrier transport properties. The maximum ZT of 0.29 x 10(-2) is obtained with the SnS nanosheet/PANI composite containing 20 wt% of SnS nanosheets, attributed to the dominance of the improvement in the Seebeck coefficient over the reduction in the electrical conductivity. The incorporation of conductive PANI and SnS nanosheets is a promising strategy for the actualization of high-performance thermoelectric applications.