Conducting polymer/carbon particle thermoelectric composites: Emerging green energy materials

Being green energy materials, thermoelectric (TE) materials can realize direct energy conversions between heat and electricity, thus have widely applications in both TE generators for energy harvesting and local cooling. Especially, low-quality waste heat can be conveniently used. In the recent several years, there is rapidly growing interest in organic conducting polymer/carbon particle TE composites, which synergistically combine the advantages of both carbon particles and polymer materials. In this review, the recent progress is systematically summarized in the order of the dimensionality of the carbon particles (2D, ID and OD) and the type of polymer matrix. Synergistic effect and polymer ordered structure, morphological tuning, devices and flexible films are highlighted. Finally, prospects and suggestions for future studies are presented. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.