Photo-thermoelectric nanofiber film based on the synergy of conjugated polymer and light traps for the solar-energy harvesting of textile solar panel

Converting solar energy into electricity is highly appealing for portable wearable devices. Herein, an facile low-temperature in situ interface polymerization is proposed to fabricate poly (3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT)-based polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber film (PAN-PEDOT). Owing to the synergy of PEDOT and fabric light traps, the fabricated PAN-PEDOT owns excellent photo-thermoelectric performances with a power factor of ~256.61 nWm−1 k−2. Accordingly, a photo-thermoelectric harvester assembled by the optimum PAN-PEDOT strip and the copper wires reached a 0.17 mV voltage output under infrared (IR) light. Furthermore, a flexible textile solar panel assembled using the optimum PAN-PEDOT and the conductive nanofiber films were placed under an IR lamp and sunlight to investigate its performance in on-body applications. Results showed that the solar panel can obtain a voltage outputs of 1.39 mV and 0.56 mV and a power outputs of 0.37 nW and 0.06 nW under an IR lamp and sunlight, respectively. Therefore, the photo-thermoelectric fabric has high potential in solar-to-heat and solar-to-electricity applications.