FACILE PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF GRAPHENE NANOSHEET/POLYANILINE NANOFIBER THERMOELECTRIC COMPOSITES

Graphene nanosheet (GNs)/polyaniline (PANI) nanofiber composites were prepared by oxidative polymerization of aniline in a GNs dispersed 1 mol/L HCl solution. The phase composition of the composites was analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and X-ray Diffraction. The thermoelectric properties of the composite powders, after cold pressing into pellets, were measured at room temperature. As the content of GNs increased from 0 to 40 wt.%, the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of the composite pellets increased simultaneously; especially the electrical conductivity increased dramatically from 15.4 to 120.1 S/cm. The highest power factor (similar to 394.4 x 10(-8) Wm(-1)K(-2)) was obtained from the 40 wt.% GNs/PANI composite sample, which is similar to 200 times as high as that of HCl-doped PANI.