Organic/inorganic hybrid for flexible thermoelectric fibers

Fiber-based flexible thermoelectric (TE) generators are highly desirable for their capability of converting electricity from thermal energy and their potential applications in wearable and portable electron devices. Herein, by inducing the gelation of conducting polymer PEDOT:PSS, we successfully prepared PEDOT:PSS/tellurium nanowires (PEDOT:PSS/Te-NWs) organic/inorganic hybrid fibers for flexible TE generator without substrates. In this work, the higher TE performance of hybrid fibers were achieved compared to its individual components. Further, solvent post-treatment was employed as an effective strategy to enhance the TE performance and mechanical properties of the as-fabricated hybrid fibers. Therefore, a power factor as high as 17.8 μW m−1 K−2 with good mechanical stability was realized for H2SO4 post-treated PEDOT:PSS/Te-NWs hybrid fiber with 50 wt% of Te-NWs. Additionally, a simple flexible TE generator with six pairs of p-n fiber legs with this post-treated hybrid fibers and carbon nanotube fibers (CNFs) was fabricated and showed the acceptable power density. This work may share lights on the development of organic/inorganic hybrid fiber-based flexible energy generators.