Novel Hybrid Organic Thermoelectric Materials:three-component Hybrid Films Consisting of a Nanoparticle Polymer Complex, Carbon Nanotubes, and Vinyl Polymer

A novel class of hybrid organic thermoelectric materials is demonstrated for the first time for constructing flexible thermoelectric devices on polyimide substrates with high output power by using nanotechnology instead of conducting polymers such as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene). The hybrid organic thermoelectric materials are composed of nanoparticles of a polymer complex, carbon nanotubes, and poly(vinyl chloride), and show high performance (dimensionless thermoelectric figure-of-merit, ZT ≈ 0.3, based on the thermal conductivity through the film).