The use of thermoelectric fabrics for powering wearable devices is expected to become widespread soon. A thermoelectric fabric was prepared by coating nanocomposite of polyaniline/graphene nanosheets (PANI/GNS) on a fabric. Four samples of the fabric containing different wt% of GNS (0.5, 2.5, 5, and 10) were prepared. To characterize the samples, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (AT-FTIR) spectra, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient measurements were used. The electrical conductivity increased from 0.0188 to 0.277 S cm−1 (from 0.5 to 10 wt% of the GNS in PANI/GNS nanocomposite). The maximum coefficient of Seebeck was 18 µV K−1 with 2.5 wt% GNS at 338 °C. The power factor improvement was from 2.047 to 3.084 μW m−1 K−2 (0.5–2.5 wt% GNS). Graphic abstract

In this work, flexible thermoelectric fabrics, polyester/yarn fabrics coated with polyaniline/carbon nanotube (PANI/CNT) nanocomposite, were fabricated by sequential processing: (I) polyaniline/carbon nanotube nanocomposites preparation by a one-step in-situ polymerization and (II) dip coating of a mixture solution of CNT-doped PANI on a polyester/yarn fabric. Nanocomposites were synthesized with various CNT content (0.5, 2.5, 5, and 10 wt%) and characterized using different methods. The Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity measurements were used to determine their thermoelectric properties. The results revealed significant improvement in both electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient with the addition of CNT. The electrical conductivity increased from 0.011 to 0.1345 S/cm with the increment of CNT from 0.5 to 10 wt%. The highest Seebeck coefficient of 11.4 μV/K was observed for the sample containing 5 wt% CNT at 338 K where the maximum power factor of 1.598×10−3 μWm−1K−2 was obtained for the fabric coated with nanocomposite containing 10 wt% CNT.