Aniline Tetramer Nanowires/Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Composites for High-Performance Thermoelectric Materials

Abstract

Simultaneously improving electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of carbon nanotubes to enhance their thermoelectric properties still poses substantial challenges. To enhance the thermoelectric properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), a physical blending method is employed to fabricate aniline tetramer nanowires/SWCNTs films (ANIT-NW/SWCNTs) by a simple blend of ANIT-NW and SWCNTs. The intertwining of ANIT-NW and SWCNTs creates a dense 3-dimensional network structure, establishing tight connections between SWCNTs bundles and ANIT-NW. The incorporation of ANIT-NW yields simultaneous enhancements in electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient, which is achieved by markedly increasing carrier mobility and reducing carrier concentration, respectively. The resulting power factor (PF) of ANIT-NW/SWCNTs reaches an impressive value of 146.7 μW·m−1·K−2. Furthermore, by utilizing ANIT-NW/SWCNTs as p-type legs and polyethyleneimine/SWCNTs as n-type legs, a thermoelectric module comprising 5 pairs of legs is constructed. This module exhibits an open-circuit voltage of 22 mV and an output power of 2.94 μW when subjected to a temperature difference of 50 K, while being loaded with a 60-Ω resistor. Therefore, these findings demonstrate the potential applications of ANIT-NW/SWCNTs films for flexible thermoelectric materials.