Organic‐based energy harvesting devices can contribute to a sustainable solution for the transition to renewable energy sources. The concept of ionic thermoelectrics (iTE) has been recently proposed and motivated by the high values of thermo‐voltage in electrolytes. So far, most research has focused on developing new electrolytes with high Seebeck coefficient. Despite the major role of the electrode materials in supercapacitors and batteries, the effect of various electrodes on energy harvesting in iTE devices has not been widely studied. In this work, the conducting polymer poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is investigated as the functional electrodes in iTE supercapacitors. Through investigating the thermo‐voltage of iTEs of the same electrolyte with varying composition of PEDOT electrodes, it is identified that the different PSS content greatly affects the overall thermo‐induced voltage coefficient, S_eff (i.e., effective thermopower). The permselective polyanion in the electrode causes cation concentration differences at the electrode/electrolyte interface and contributes to an interfacial potential drop that is temperature dependent. As a result, the overall thermo‐voltage of the device possesses both an interfacial and a bulk contribution. The findings extend the fundamental understanding of iTE effect with functional electrodes, which could lead a new direction to enhance the heat‐to‐electricity conversion.

Organic materials have been found to be promising candidates for low-temperature thermoelectric applications. In particular, poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) has been attracting great interest due to its desirable intrinsic properties, such as excellent solution processability, chemical and thermal stability, and high field-effect mobility. However, its poor electrical conductivity has limited its application as a thermoelectric material. It is therefore important to improve the electrical conductivity of P3HT layers. In this work, we studied how molecular weight (MW) influences the thermoelectric properties of P3HT films. The films were doped with lithium bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl) imide salt (LiTFSI) and 4-tert butylpyridine (TBP). Various P3HT layers with different MWs ranging from 21 to 94 kDa were investigated. UV–Vis spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis were performed to investigate the morphology and structure features of thin films with different MWs. The electrical conductivity initially increased when the MW increased and then decreased at the highest MW, whereas the Seebeck coefficient had a trend of reducing as the MW grew. The maximum thermoelectric power factor (1.87 μW/mK²) was obtained for MW of 77 kDa at 333 K. At this temperature, the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of this MW were 65.5 S/m and 169 μV/K, respectively.

The increasing energy demand and the ever more pressing need for clean technologies of energy conversion pose one of the most urgent and complicated issues of our age. Thermoelectricity, namely the direct conversion of waste heat into electricity, is a promising technique based on a long-standing physical phenomenon, which still has not fully developed its potential, mainly due to the low efficiency of the process. In order to improve the thermoelectric performance, a huge effort is being made by physicists, materials scientists and engineers, with the primary aims of better understanding the fundamental issues ruling the improvement of the thermoelectric figure of merit, and finally building the most efficient thermoelectric devices. In this Roadmap an overview is given about the most recent experimental and computational results obtained within the Italian research community on the optimization of composition and morphology of some thermoelectric materials, as well as on the design of thermoelectric and hybrid thermoelectric/photovoltaic devices.

Ionic thermoelectric supercapacitors (ITESCs) have recently been developed for converting low‐grade waste heat into electricity. Until now, most reports of ITESCs have been focused on the development of electrolytes, which then have been combined with a specific electrode material. Here, it is demonstrated that the electrode is not only critical for electrical energy storage but also greatly affects the effective thermopower (S_eff) of an ITESC. It is shown that the same ion gel can generate a positive thermopower in an ITESC when using gold nanowire (AuNW) electrodes, while generating a negative thermopower when using poly(3,4‐ethylendioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) electrodes. The achieved negative sign of the S_eff could be attributed to the Donnan exclusive effect from the polyanions in the PEDOT:PSS electrodes. After examining the thermovoltage, capacitance and charge retention performance of the two ITESCs, it is concluded that PEDOT:PSS is superior to AuNWs as electrodes. Moreover, a new strategy of constructing an ionic thermopile of multiple p‐ and n‐type legs is achieved by series‐connecting these legs with same electrolyte but different electrodes. Using interfacial effect at ionic gels/PEDOT:PSS electrode interface, an enhanced thermoelectric effect in ITESCs is obtained, which constitutes one more step towards efficient, low‐cost, flexible, and printable ionic thermoelectric modules for energy harvesting.

Organic materials have attracted considerable attention for thermoelectric (TE) applications. Given their potential as wearable power generators, there is an urgent need to develop organic TE materials that possess superior electronic properties as well as excellent mechanical and environmental stability. Here, we develop paper-based TE materials using the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), and a starch-based biopolymer as a binder for GNPs. The device fabrication consists of spraying the biopolymer/GNP ink onto the cellulose paper followed by spraying the PEDOT:PSS solution. Further enhancement of TE properties was obtained by adding an ionic liquid (IL), bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide lithium salt to the PEDOT:PSS solution. Upon addition of the IL, the electrical conductivity of as-fabricated PEDOT:PSS films increased nearly two orders of magnitude. The electrical conductivity increases with GNPs' content due to formation of an effective electrical percolation network. Interestingly, incorporating GNPs simultaneously improves the Seebeck coefficient. Raman measurements suggest that the concurrent enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity might be related to the chemical bonding between the conducting polymer chains and the filler. In addition, these composites display remarkable flexibility at various bending angles and environmental stability without losing their original conductivity after three months of exposure to ambient conditions.

Thermoelectric (TE) materials have drawn a lot of attention as a promising technology to harvest waste heat and convert it into electrical energy. However, the toxicity and expense of inorganic TE materials along with high-temperature fabrication processes have limited their application. Additionally, the reduction of raw material resources, such as metals and petroleum is another limiting factor. Hence, developing low-cost, stable, and easily-created TE materials from renewable resources is attracting more and more interest for a wide range of applications including the internet of things and self-powered sensors. Herein, an efficacious processing strategy to fabricate printable TE materials has been developed with Ethyl cellulose (EC), a non-conducting polymer, as the polymer matrix and with Graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) as fillers. EC, one of the cellulose’s derivatives, has been widely used as a binder in the printing pastes. The conductive pastes with different filler contents have been fabricated. The weight ratio of GNPs and EC were ranged from 0.2 to 0.7. These conductive pastes have been deposited by blade coating on glass substrates. The electrical conductivity of the composites has increased polynomially as the filler content increased, whereas the Seebeck coefficient did not change significantly with the increased electrical conductivity. The highest electrical conductivity at room temperature (355.4 S m⁻¹) was obtained for the ratio of 0.7. This ratio also had the maximum power factor value. Moreover, a 3D structure form (cylindrical pellet) from the highest conductive paste was also fabricated. The proposed technique demonstrates an industrially feasible approach to fabricate different geometries and structures for organic TE modules. So, this approach could provide a good reference for the production of high efficiency, low-temperature, lightweight, low-cost, TE materials.