Exceptional thermoelectric properties of flexible organic−inorganic hybrids with monodispersed and periodic nanophase

Flexible organic-inorganic hybrids are promising thermoelectric materials to recycle waste heat in versatile formats. However, current organic/inorganic hybrids suffer from inferior thermoelectric properties due to aggregate nanostructures. Here we demonstrate flexible organic-inorganic hybrids where size-tunable Bi2Te3 nanoparticles are discontinuously monodispersed in the continuous conductive polymer phase, completely distinct from traditional bi-continuous hybrids. Periodic nanofillers significantly scatter phonons while continuous conducting polymer phase provides favored electronic transport, resulting in ultrahigh power factor of ~1350 μW m-1 K-2 and ultralow in-plane thermal conductivity of ~0.7 W m-1 K-1. Consequently, figure-of-merit (ZT) of 0.58 is obtained at room temperature, outperforming all reported organic materials and organic-inorganic hybrids. Thermoelectric properties of as-fabricated hybrids show negligible change for bending 100 cycles, indicating superior mechanical flexibility. These findings provide significant scientific foundation for shaping flexible thermoelectric functionality via synergistic integration of organic and inorganic components.