Quantifying contributions to thermal conductivity from electrons and atomic vibrations in doped semiconducting polymers is important for heat transfer. Several studies report Lorenz numbers (L) that are larger than the Sommerfeld limit (L₀), counterintuitively implying that charge carriers in semiconducting polymers carry more heat than those in metals. Alternatively, this phenomenon can be explained by recognizing that semiconducting polymers often contain insulating and conducting domains. Microstructures can lead to misinterpretation of the effective Lorenz number (L_eff) observed macroscopically. Herein, effective medium theory (EMT) shows that inhomogeneity can result in macroscopic measurements where L_eff ≠ L₀, even when each component exhibits L₀ at the microscopic level. The authors then extend the semi-localized transport (SLoT) model to explain the origins of the large L_eff values, validating with the prototypical poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) system. This electro-thermal extension of the SLoT model (ET-SLoT) improves the ability to engineer the electronic contribution to thermal conductivity of semiconducting polymers.

中文翻译：

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量化不均匀性和掺杂对半导体聚合物中电子对热导率的贡献的影响

量化掺杂半导体聚合物中电子和原子振动对热导率的贡献对于传热很重要。几项研究报告了大于索末菲极限 ( L _{0 ) 的洛伦兹数 (} L )，这与直觉相反，暗示半导体聚合物中的电荷载流子比金属中的电荷载流子携带更多热量。或者，这种现象可以通过认识到半导体聚合物通常包含绝缘和导电域来解释。微观结构会导致对宏观观察到的有效洛伦兹数 ( L _{eff ) 的误解。}在此，有效介质理论 (EMT) 表明，不均匀性会导致宏观测量，其中L_eff  ≠ L ₀，即使每个成分在微观水平上都表现出L _{0 。}然后，作者扩展了半局部化传输 (SLoT) 模型来解释大L _eff值的起源，并使用原型聚 (3,4-乙烯二氧噻吩) 系统进行验证。SLoT 模型 (ET-SLoT) 的这种电热扩展提高了设计电子对半导体聚合物热导率的贡献的能力。