A high performance all-organic thermoelectric fiber generator towards promising wearable electron

Abstract Fiber-based materials have gained great concern in wearable organic electrons due to reliable flexibility and excellent electron transport property. Thermoelectric (TE) conversion has been regarded as a promising energy harvesting for protable electron devices. However, the development of n-type organic material with good environmental stability hinder the further assembling of an all-organic TE generator. Herein, we designed and proposed an all-organic TE fiber generator composed of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers. The p-type conductive fabrics with a relatively high electrical conductivity (18.8 S cm−1) were prepared based on the common cotton fabric (CNF) by simple soaking in PEDOT:PSS solution. The n-type CNT (n-CNT) fibers were obtained through polyethylenemine (PEI) treated p-type CNT (p-CNT) resulting in a high electrical conductivity (871 S cm−1) and Seebeck coefficient (−58 μV K−1) with excellent environmental stability. The flexible fiber-based TE generator was assembled by connecting p-type PEDOT:PSS-coated CNF (CNF@PP) and n-CNT fibers in series allowing a large output power (375 μW). The fabrication of all-organic fiber generator can promote the further development of organic TE energy harvest in wearable electrons.