Thermoelectric (TE) heating and cooling devices, which are able to directly convert thermal energy into electrical energy and vice versa, are effective and have exhibited a potential for energy harvesting. With the increasing consumer demands for various wearable electronics, organic-based TE composite materials offer a promise for the TE devices applications. Conductive polymers are widely used as flexible TE materials replacing inorganic materials due to their flexibility, low thermal conductivity, mechanical flexibility, ease of processing, and low cost. In this review, we briefly introduce the latest research trends in the flexible TE technology and provide a comprehensive summary of specific conductive polymer-based TE material fabrication technologies. We also summarize the manufacture for high-efficiency TE composites through the complexation of a conductive polymer matrix/inorganic TE filler. We believe that this review will inspire further research to improve the TE performance of conductive polymers.

In this study, composite transparent electrodes were fabricated either from a conductive polymer poly(3,4- ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) or silver nanowire (AgNW). Three transparent electrodes such as PEDOT:PSS, PEDOT:PSS and AgNW mixture, and AgNW were fabricated. As for a transparent electrode, measured sheet resistance values were 89.6, 60.6 and 28.6 Ω/sq, and the transmittance values were 80.2, 82.0 and 83.8% while surface roughness (Rq) values were 4.1, 8.1, 20.4 nm for PEDOT:PSS, PEDOT:PSS and AgNW mixture, and AgNW, respectively. To verify the overall performance of these composite electrodes, we applied these electrodes to the top electrode of the solution-processed organic solar cells (OSCs). PEDOT:PSS provided the best performance with a fill factor (FF) of 51.2% and a photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.2%, while traditional metal top electrode OSC provided FF of 60.5% and PCE of 3.1%.

The power law is very important in gas sensing for the determination of gas concentration. In this study, the resistance of a gas sensor based on poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate＋graphene oxide composite was found to exhibit a power law dependence on hydrogen concentration at 150℃. Experiments were carried out in the gas concentration range of 30~180 ppm at which the sensor showed a sensitivity of 6~9% with a response and recovery time of 30s.

In this paper, we fabricated flexible CNT/PVDF (carbon nanotube / polyvinylidene fluoride) piezoelectric composite device with flexible poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) : polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) conducting polymer electrode using spray coating method. We tried to improve the piezoelectric performance from the CNT/PVDF composite film by enhancing electrical conductivity of the PEDOT:PSS electrodes. Electrical conductivity of the PEDOT:PSS electrode was enhanced by dipping it into the EG (ethylene glycol) solvent. Changes of chemical composition of the PEDOT:PSS electrode were analyzed with the dipping time by XPS (x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) in terms of oxygen (O1s). Finally, Piezoelectric performances such as output voltage and current were measured with the dipping time. We found that enhanced electrical conductivity of the PEDOT:PSS electrodes resulted in improvement of the piezoelectric performance of the CNT/PVDF films.

In this research, nanocomposite layers consisting of poly (3,4,-ethylene dioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonic acid (PEDOT:PSS) and CuO nanoparticles were investigated as hole transport layers in organic solar cells based on poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as the electron donor and (6.6) phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as the electron acceptor. The addition of CuO nanoparticles to PEDOT:PSS layer improved the solar cell performance with 0.5% CuO nanoparticle concentration. At optimized concentration, CuO mixed PEDOT:PSS films had good electrical (4.131 Ω?cm) and optical (transmittance > 90%) properties for using hole transporting layer. We investigated that improved solar cell performance with CuO nanoparticles mixed PEDOT:PSS films.