Recent progress in flexible organic thermoelectrics

Environmental energy issues caused by the burning of fossil fuel such as coal, and petroleum, and the limited resources along with the increasing world population pose a world-wide challenge. Alternative energy sources including solar energy, wind energy, and biomass energy, have been suggested as practical and affordable solutions to future energy needs. Among energy conversion technologies, thermoelectric (TE) materials are considered one of the most potential candidates to play a crucial role in addressing today’s global energy issues. TE materials can convert waste heat such as the sun, automotive exhaust, and industrial processes to a useful electrical voltage with no moving parts, no hazardous working chemical-fluids, low maintenance costs, and high reliability. These advantages of TE conversion provide solutions to solve the energy crisis. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the recent progress on organic TE materials, focused on polymers and their corresponding organic composites incorporated with carbon nanofillers (including graphene and carbon nanotubes). Various strategies to enhance the TE properties, such as electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient, in polymers and polymer composites will be highlighted. Then, a discussion on polymer composite based TE devices is summarized. Finally, brief conclusions and outlooks for future research efforts are presented.