Organic thermoelectric materials show good prospects in environment-friendly energy harvesting, and doping is an effective and important strategy to improve the thermoelectric performance. However, current major methods of regulating doping are limited to chemical reduction and oxidation by chemicals. In this work, a free-standing poly(thiophene-furan) (PTFu) film with metallic luster was successfully prepared by an electrochemical polymerization method in a neutral electrolyte system, and its thermoelectric properties were investigated for the first time. The as-prepared PTFu shows high quality and good electrochemical reversibility. Optical absorption spectra of the film indicated that the electrochemical doping method can control the doping state of the polymer. The electrical conductivity was increased to a maximum of 5.5 × 10⁻² S cm⁻¹ at 0.6 V by the electrochemical treatment; the Seebeck coefficient reached up to 103.5 μV K⁻¹ when the polymer was in a de-doped state. As a result, the doped polymer film achieved an enhanced power factor of 1.5 × 10⁻² μW m⁻¹ K⁻² at 0.4 V, which is about 24 times higher than that of the initial PTFu film. Thus, it is proved that electrochemical doping is an efficient strategy for the improvement of the thermoelectric properties of conducting polymers.

中文翻译：

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π-共轭自立式聚噻吩-呋喃薄膜的热电性能的电化学掺杂工程调整

有机热电材料在环境友好的能量收集方面显示出良好的前景，掺杂是提高热电性能的有效而重要的策略。然而，当前调节掺杂的主要方法限于化学还原和化学氧化。在这项工作中，通过电化学聚合方法在中性电解质体系中成功制备了具有金属光泽的自支撑聚噻吩-呋喃（PTFu）膜，并首次研究了其热电性能。所制备的PTFu显示出高质量和良好的电化学可逆性。薄膜的光吸收光谱表明，电化学掺杂方法可以控制聚合物的掺杂状态。导电率增加到最大5.5×10通过电化学处理在0.6 V下为^-2 S cm ^-1；当聚合物处于去掺杂状态时，塞贝克系数高达103.5μVK ^-1。其结果是，掺杂的聚合物膜来实现的1.5×10的增强的功率因数^-2 μW米^-1 ķ ^-2 0.4 V，这大约比初始PTFu膜的高24倍。因此，证明了电化学掺杂是用于改善导电聚合物的热电性质的有效策略。