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Bulk Doping of Millimeter‐Thick Conjugated Polymer Foams for Plastic Thermoelectrics
Author(s) -
Kroon Renee,
Ryan Jason D.,
Kiefer David,
Yu Liyang,
Hynynen Jonna,
Olsson Eva,
Müller Christian
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201704183
Subject(s) - materials science , doping , dopant , thermoelectric materials , nanoporous , fabrication , thermoelectric effect , porosity , polymer , millimeter , composite material , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , semiconductor , microscale chemistry , optics , thermal conductivity , medicine , alternative medicine , physics , pathology , thermodynamics , mathematics education , mathematics
Foaming of plastics allows for extensive tuning of mechanical and physicochemical properties. Utilizing the foam architecture for plastic semiconductors can be used to improve ingression of external molecular species that govern the operation of organic electronic devices. In case of plastic thermoelectrics, utilizing solid semiconductors with realistic (millimeter (mm)‐thick) dimensions does not permit sequential doping—while sequential doping offers the higher thermoelectric performance compared to other methods—because this doping methodology is diffusion limited. In this work, a fabrication process for poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) foams is presented, based on a combination of salt leaching and thermally induced phase separation. The obtained micro‐ and nanoporous architecture permits rapid and uniform doping of mm‐thick foams with 2,3,5,6‐tetrafluoro‐7,7,8,8‐tetracyanoquinodimethane, while thick solid P3HT structures suffer from protracted doping times and a dopant‐depleted central region. Importantly, the thermoelectric performance of a P3HT foam is largely retained when normalized with regard to the quantity of used material.