Evaluation of Thermopower of Organic Materials Toward Flexible Thermoelectric Power Generators

Organic conducting and semiconducting materials are promising as thermoelectric conversion materials in flexible and wearable electronics because they have large Seebeck coefficients and small thermal conductivities. Since there have been only a limited number of studies on the thermoelectricity of organic materials to date, precise evaluation of Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity of various organic conducting/semiconducting thin films is important to examine what kind of material is the most effectual. To carry out such experiments, a specially designed instrument for organic thin films has been developed. Its ability to measure Seebeck coefficients of highly resistive materials was confirmed and Seebeck coefficients and power factors of several typical organic functional materials were preliminary evaluated.