Thermoelectric properties of graphite nanosheets/poly(vinylidene fluoride) composites

Abstract

GNS/PVDF composites were prepared using graphite nanosheets (GNS) and poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) for flexible thermoelectric application. We measured the electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of GNS/PVDF composites with different contents of GNS and then evaluated the thermoelectric properties of GNS/PVDF composites. The electrical conductivity of GNS/PVDF composites increased from 389 to 1512 S/m with increasing the content of GNS from 10 to 70 wt%. While the electrical conductivity dramatically increased, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity did not show any big difference as the content of GNS increases. In this study, we demonstrated that GNS/PVDF composites improved the thermoelectric properties by decreasing the thermal conductivity due to the phonon scattering at the interfaces between polymer and GNS nanoplatelets.