Thermal electric effects and heat generation in polypyrrole coated PET fabrics

TL;DR

This study explores the thermoelectric properties and heat generation of polypyrrole-coated PET fabrics, highlighting their potential for thermoelectric applications due to favorable Seebeck coefficients and low thermal diffusivity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the thermal electric performance and heat generation capabilities of polypyrrole-coated PET textiles, a novel application of conducting polymers in thermoelectric devices.

Findings

Seebeck coefficient comparable to metal thermocouples

Low thermal diffusivity enhances thermoelectric figure-of-merit

Potential for heating textile applications

Abstract

Polypyrrole chemically synthesized on PET gives rise to textiles with a high electric conductivity, suitable for several applications from antistatics to electromagnetic interference shielding devices. Here, we discuss investigations on thermal electric performances of the polypyrrole coated PET in a wide range of temperatures above room temperature. The Seebeck coefficient turns out to be comparable with that of metal thermocouple materials. Since polypyrrole shows extremely low thermal diffusivities regardless of the electrical conductivity, the low thermal conductivity gives significant advantage to the thermoelectric figure-of-merit ZT, comparable with that of some traditional inorganic thermoelectric materials. The heat generation is also investigated for possible heating textile devices.