The requirement of a portable electron is functioning as a driving force for a wearable energy instrument. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), as one of the most promising organic electron materials, has been widely studied in energy conversion devices. However, the efforts for PEDOT:PSS fibers are insufficient to boost the development of wearable thermoelectric energy harvesting. Here, a highly conductive p-type PEDOT:PSS fiber was produced by gelation process, which was 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of previous hydrogel fibers. Surprisingly, a posttreatment with organic solvents such as ethylene glycol and dimethyl sulfoxide tripled their electrical conductivity with an only 5% decreased Seebeck coefficient, consequently leading to an optimized thermoelectric power factor. Furthermore, we assembled a p−n-type thermoelectric device connecting five pairs of p-type PEDOT:PSS fibers and n-type carbon nanotube fibers. This fiber-based device displayed an acceptable output voltage of 20.7 mV and a power density of 481.2 μW•cm −2 with a temperature difference of ∼60 K, which might pave the way for the development of organic thermoelectric fibers for wearable energy harvesting.
Device Fabrication and Measurement: Standard photolithography process was performed to pattern the electrodes, which were then followed by deposition of 8/30 nm Cr/Au films using an electron beam evaporator. The electrical characterization was performed by FS-Pro 380 semiconductor device analyzer with devices placed in a vacuum probe station. For the temperature-dependent tests, devices were placed on a Linkam THMS350V stage.
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