Bismuth Interfacial Doping of Organic Small Molecules for High Performance n-type Thermoelectric Materials

Abstract

Development of chemically doped high performance n-type organic thermoelectric (TE) materials is of vital importance for flexible power generating applications. For the first time, bismuth (Bi) n-type chemical doping of organic semiconductors is described, enabling high performance TE materials. The Bi interfacial doping of thiophene-diketopyrrolopyrrole-based quinoidal (TDPPQ) molecules endows the film with a balanced electrical conductivity of 3.3 S cm−1and a Seebeck coefficient of 585 μV K−1. The newly developed TE material possesses a maximum power factor of 113 μW m−1K−2, which is at the forefront for organic small molecule-based n-type TE materials. These studies reveal that fine-tuning of the heavy metal doping of organic semiconductors opens up a new strategy for exploring high performance organic TE materials.