Excluded Volume Effect on the Power Factor of Carbon Nanotube based Polymer Composites

Abstract

Investigations into polymeric materials as flexible thermoelectric (TE) materials have encountered issues, such as conflicting thermoelectric property behaviors that result in a low power factor. To tackle these issues, we propose the use of two unique sorts of fillers - carbon nanotubes (CNT) and silica particles -- embedded in polymer matrix for enhanced TE properties. Embedding micro-scale segregated structures as the secondary fillers creates an excluded volume within CNT networks, which leads to the simultaneous increase in the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of the composite. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is used as a suitable matrix because of its merits such as solution processability, light weight, low thermal conductivity and an internet of things. As silica content increased up to 40 wt%, electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient increases in the segregated composite framework, resulting in maximum power factor of approximately 25.96 and 42.89 microW/mK2 for 1 and 3 micrometer size silica particles, respectively. Moreover, using much lower CNT content, such as 10 wt% CNT stacking, results at a desired level of electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient. This study ultimately develops the hypothesis that the network topology of CNT-based polymer composites depends on the size and characteristics of the secondary fillers