Polymer thermoelectric devices prepared by thermal lamination

•A lamination approach is developed to fabricate polymer thermoelectric devices.•Polyvinyl butyral was used as an insulating layer and glue in the devices.•The contact resistance in the devices was optimized.•A power output of 37 μW was achieved at ΔT = 50 K using a 1.54 cm2 device.

The thermoelectric properties of organic materials have been greatly improved very recently, but studies of organic thermoelectric device fabrication are still very limited. In this work, we report proof-of-concept studies of organic thermoelectric devices fabricated by thermal lamination at 100 °C using the benchmark p-type material poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate). A 1.54 cm2 device shows a power output of 37 μW at a temperature difference of 50 K (a power density of 24 μW/cm2), which is one of the highest values when compared with previous studies. This approach potentially enables the fabrication of high-performance, large-area organic thermoelectric devices via roll-to-roll processing at a low temperature.

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