Executive Summary : | Thermoelectric materials are capable of generating a potential difference from a temperature gradient and are materials of choice for energy conversion technology. These materials are used in thermoelectric generators (TEG), which can harvest energy from waste heat even at low temperatures where majority of energy conversion technologies are not usable. Today’s technologies mostly use inorganic thermoelectric materials, which are usually rigid, toxic for the environment, expensive, non-recyclable and have a low-natural abundance. This hinders their widespread large-scale technological application(s) of inorganic thermoelectrics. On the other hand, polymer based thermoelectric materials possesses some unique features like mechanical flexibility, low thermal conductivity, wide-availability, low-temperature solution processability in comparison to their inorganic counterpart. Polymer thermoelectrics offer huge potential for relatively low-cost production in industrial scale. The synthesis of polymeric materials with enhanced energy conversion efficiency for thermoelectric application(s) and fabrication of organic thermoelectric devices are the essence of the this work. |
Co-PI: | Dr. Ravi Kumar N. V., Professor, Department of Metallurgical and Materials, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, Dr. R. Gopalan, Adjunct Professor and Scientist-G, ARCI, Chennai, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai |