Project R-15190

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of n-type organic thermoelectric materials for low-temperature applications (Research)

A lot of efforts are currently devoted to improving green energy technologies but one alternative, thermoelectrics, remains underdeveloped. Thermoelectric materials are capable of directly converting heat to electricity. Despite being known for decades, using the thermoelectric effect for commercial products has remained limited due to cost and efficiency issues. Considering organic alternatives, however, opens up new avenues as these materials have the advantage of being low-cost, biocompatible, printable, and flexible. This makes them particularly attractive to power wearable electronics, mobile devices, or sensors, simply recovering body heat. Notwithstanding this high potential, research on organic thermoelectrics still mainly resides in the academic phase. Overall poor efficiencies are caused by low electrical conductivities (due to low doping efficiencies) and unbalanced performance of p- and n-type materials. Mainly n-type organics received less attention and unequivocal material design rules are absent to date. Hence, it is clear that strategic material studies are essential to elucidate the full potential of organic thermoelectrics and to gauge their possible contribution to a low-carbon society. In this project, this challenge is addressed by the design, synthesis, and performance evaluation of innovative classes of n-type organic semiconductors, motivated by the extended library of novel materials developed recently and new insights into the doping mechanisms.

01 October 2024 - 15 June 2025