An effective thermal treatment strategy for thermoelectric performance enhancement in PANI/Te nanorod hybrid film

Doping is of key importance in enhancing the electrical transport properties of conducting polymers. Recently, several strategies were employed to optimize the carrier concentration to maximize the power factor of conducting polymers based thermoelectric (TE) materials. Here, we adopted thermal treatment on polyaniline/Te nanorod hybrid films to study the temperature dependent changes in molecular structure, crystallinity, and electrical transport behaviors. The results unambiguously indicated that the carrier concentration would be effectively tuned, and the TE performance was further enhanced via thermal treatment solely. Finally, a 20% increment in power factor has been achieved for the hybrid film treated at 180 °C compared with as-prepared film. The study provides a facile route for optimizing TE properties of polymer-based hybrid materials.