Issue 26, 2022

The cross-interface energy-filtering effect at organic/inorganic interfaces balances the trade-off between thermopower and conductivity

Abstract

The energy-filtering effect has been widely employed to elucidate the enhanced thermoelectric properties of organic/inorganic hybrids. However, the traditional Mott criterion cannot identify the energy-filtering effect of organic/inorganic hybrids due to the limitations of the Hall effect measurement in determining their carrier concentration. In this work, a carrier concentration-independent strategy under the theoretical framework of the Kang–Snyder model is proposed and demonstrated using PANI/MWCNT composites. The result indicates that the energy-filtering effect is triggered on increasing the temperature to 220 K. The energy-filtering effect gives a symmetry-breaking characteristic to the density of states of the charge carriers and leads to a higher thermopower of PANI/MWCNT than that of each constituent. From a morphological perspective, a paracrystalline PANI layer with a thickness of 3 nm is spontaneously assembled on the MWCNT network and serves as a metallic percolation pathway for carriers, resulting in a 5.56-fold increase in conductivity. The cooperative 3D carrier transport mode, including the 1D metallic transport along the paracrystalline PANI and the 2D cross-interface energy-filtering transport, co-determines a 4-fold increase in the power factors of PANI/MWCNT at 300 K. This work provides a physical insight into the improvement of the thermoelectric performance of organic/inorganic hybrids via the energy-filtering effect.

Graphical abstract: The cross-interface energy-filtering effect at organic/inorganic interfaces balances the trade-off between thermopower and conductivity

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 May 2022
Accepted
19 May 2022
First published
22 Jun 2022

Nanoscale, 2022,14, 9419-9430

The cross-interface energy-filtering effect at organic/inorganic interfaces balances the trade-off between thermopower and conductivity

Z. Lin, H. Dang, C. Zhao, Y. Du, C. Chi, W. Ma, Y. Li and X. Zhang, Nanoscale, 2022, 14, 9419 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR02432B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements