Thermoelectric studies of oligophenylenevinylene segmented block copolymers and their blends with MEH-PPV

• 1,4-Distyrylbenzene block copolymers (BCPs) with (CH2)n can be thermoelectric.
• P-doped BCP films give electrical conductivities of 10−5 to 10−3 S cm−1.
• The same BCP films give Seebeck coefficients of 24–2650 S μV K−1.
• I2-doped BCP blends with MEH-PPV give Seebeck coefficients of 7–276 S μV K−1.
• The same doped MEH-PPV/BCP blends give power factors up to 1 μW m−1 K−2.

Segmented block copolymers (BCPs) of conjugated distyrylbenzene conjugated units linked by variable flexible nonconjugated units were p-doped, and their electrical conduction and Seebeck thermoelectric (TE) behaviors evaluated. The doped BCP Seebeck coefficients ranged up about 2600 μV K−1, but with low conductivities giving low TE power factors. BCP blends with MEH-PPV gave much improved conductivity when doped with I2, and retained high enough Seebeck coefficients (up to about 530 μV K−1) to give significantly higher TE power factors compared to the doped BCPs alone.

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