Polymeric thermoelectric composites by polypyrrole and cheap reduced graphene oxide in towel-gourd sponge fibers

Abstract

The thermoelectric (TE) materials can transform thermal energy into electrical energy, and polymer TE composites have attracted increasing interest for flexible semiconductors. However, polymer composites suffer from low TE performances due to the low electroconductibility (σ). Herein, grafted conducting networks were fabricated by grafting polypyrrole (PPy) onto the cheap graphene of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) in the bundled micro-tunnel of towel-gourd sponge (TS) fibers. Afterward, the TS powders containing grafted conducting networks were cured by the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The PDMS/TS-rGO-PPy composites exhibited an σ of 74 S/m, thermal conductivity of 0.249 W·m−1·K−1, Seebeck coefficient of 84.2 μV/K, and thermoelectric figure of merit of 5.427 × 10−4 with 10.0 wt % filler loading. Moreover, dynamic TE properties of our composites under tensile loading were investigated. The results show that the grafted conducting network maintained its integrity by interconnection of PPy between adjacent rGO nano-layers.