A facile surface treatment utilizing binary mixtures of ammonium salts and polar solvents for multiply enhancing thermoelectric PEDOT: PSS films

An innovative composite recipe coupling binary mixtures of ammonium salts of ammonium formate and polar solvents 2-methoxyethanol has been successfully demonstrated as an effective surface-treatment reagent for significantly improving the thermoelectric performance of the baked poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films. The unique combination opens a new avenue to simultaneously improve the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity of the baked PEDOT:PSS films for obtaining the remarkably enhanced power factor of ∼20 μW/mK2 and the figure-of-merit (ZT) of 0.033.