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Topological Design of Inorganic-Organic Thermoelectric Nanocomposites Based on "Electron-Percolation Phonon-Insulator" Concept Xinfang Gao, Minhong He, Bin Liu, Jizhu Hu, Yuanyuan Wang, Ziqi Liang, and Jun Zhou ACS Appl. Energy Mater., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.8b00615 • Publication Date (Web): 29 May 2018 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on June 5, 2018
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ACS Applied Energy Materials
Topological Thermoelectric
Design
of
Inorganic-Organic
Nanocomposites
Based
on
"Electron-Percolation Phonon-Insulator" Concept Xinfang Gao,1,# Minhong He,2,# Bin Liu,1 Jizhu Hu,1 Yuanyuan Wang,3,* Ziqi Liang,2,* and Jun Zhou1,* 1
Center for Phononics and Thermal Energy Science; China-EU Joint Center for
Nanophononics and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China 2
Department of Materials Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
3
School of Environmental and Materials Engineering, Shanghai Polytechnic University,
Shanghai 201209, China
ABSTRACT: Thermoelectric nanocomposites (TENCs) with inorganic nanostructures embedded in an organic matrix have attracted much attention in recent years. There is hardly any theory to guide the design of such TENC although various combinations of inorganic fillers and organic matrices are reported. We recently proposed a concept of "electronpercolation phonon-insulator" to provide a guiding ideology for designing inorganic-organic TENC. In this paper, we systematically exemplify this theory by measuring the transport properties of TENC with a sequence of one-, two-, and three-dimensional nanostructured fillers embedded in insulating polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrix. The topological structure of the connected fillers is found to be a key factor to achieve high thermoelectric performance. The intrinsic Seebeck coefficient of filler materials and the contact resistance between fillers also play important roles. 1 ACS Paragon Plus Environment
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KEYWORDS thermoelectric materials; inorganic-organic nanocomposites; percolation theory; phonon insulator; power factor; thermal conductivity; flexibility
INTRODUCTION High-efficiency thermoelectric (TE) materials, which are effective in providing clean and recycling energy from solar energy or waste heat, are of great importance for their potential solution to the global energy crisis.1 The TE efficiency of materials is characterized by the dimensionless figure of merit, ZT = σS2T/κ, where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ the electrical conductivity, κ the thermal conductivity, and T the absolute temperature, respectively.2 σS2 is usually mentioned as the power factor (PF), which determines the output power in TE power generation process.3 Much effort has been devoted to inorganic semiconductor TE materials because of their excellent combination of σ, S, and κ, which typically fall in the range of 103 S/cm, ±200 µV/K and 1 W/(m·K), respectively. Metals, insulators, and non-conducting polymer are commonly considered to be poor TE materials. In contrast, organic semiconductor materials that combine many advantages such as mechanical flexibility, non-toxic, low cost, and very low thermal conductivity (
