Highly Efficient and Wearable Thermoelectric Composites Based on Polyaniline/Filled-Skutterudite Composites

Abstract

Wearable electronic devices have great promise in medical monitoring and bionic prosthesis which could not operate without electric energy support. Since they need recharging or replacement after a specific period of operation, energy storage technologies like batteries and capacitors cannot meet long-term battery life in military and medical surveillance battery life requirements. The thermoelectric generator uses the skin-environment temperature difference to generate electricity from human energy, making continuous wearable device powering possible. In this paper, polyaniline (PANI) is synthesized by chemical oxidation method and the effects of doping PANI with different concentrations of hydrochloric acid (HCl) on its micromorphology and characteristics is investigated. The effective synthesis of polyaniline/filled-skutterudite composites was achieved by the mechanical milling technique. And the influence of skutterudite composition and hot-pressing temperature on the microstructure and characteristics of composite materials is analyzed. The results show that HCl-doped PANI has higher crystallinity than intrinsic PANI, improving electrical characteristics. The inclusion of skutterudite with greater conductivity in PANI has led to a substantial enhancement in conductivity, with a value of 229.8 S/m achieved at a skutterudite mass fraction of 10%, the Seebeck coefficient is measured to be 8.32 μV/K, and the power factor reaches its maximum value of 15.9×10-9 Wm-1K-2.

Keywords: Polyaniline, Composites, Preparation and characterization, Thermoelectric performance