Problems of conductive polymers as thermoelectric materials

Thermoelectric energy conversion is paid attention to as an environmental technology. Research and development has been performed only for inorganic materials for a long time. From a point of view of environmental burden through material life cycle, organic/polymer materials are worthy to be pioneered. Thermoelectric eco-device could be realized by organic/polymer materials. We evaluated thermoelectric properties of typical conductive polymers to expose what are the problems of polymer applications to thermoelectric materials.