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Rigid Coplanar Polymers for Stable n‐Type Polymer Thermoelectrics
Author(s) -
Lu Yang,
Yu ZiDi,
Zhang RunZhi,
Yao ZeFan,
You HaoYang,
Jiang Li,
Un HioIeng,
Dong BoWei,
Xiong Miao,
Wang JieYu,
Pei Jian
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201905835
Subject(s) - homo/lumo , polymer , materials science , doping , conjugated system , thermoelectric materials , conductive polymer , thermoelectric effect , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , chemistry , optoelectronics , composite material , molecule , thermodynamics , physics , thermal conductivity , engineering
Low n‐doping efficiency and inferior stability restrict the thermoelectric performance of n‐type conjugated polymers, making their performance lag far behind of their p ‐type counterparts. Reported here are two rigid coplanar poly( p ‐phenylene vinylene) (PPV) derivatives, LPPV‐1 and LPPV‐2 , which show nearly torsion‐free backbones. The fused electron‐deficient rigid structures endow the derivatives with less conformational disorder and low‐lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels, down to −4.49 eV. After doping, two polymers exhibited high n‐doping efficiency and significantly improved air stability. LPPV‐1 exhibited a high conductivity of up to 1.1 S cm −1 and a power factor as high as 1.96 μW m −1 K −2 . Importantly, the power factor of the doped LPPV‐1 thick film degraded only 2 % after 7 day exposure to air. This work demonstrates a new strategy for designing conjugated polymers, with planar backbones and low LUMO levels, towards high‐performance and potentially air‐stable n‐type polymer thermoelectrics.