LAUSR

Abstract We have developed a technique for fabricating films of the thermoelectric material, PEDOT/PSS, with enhanced thermoelectric properties via a gel-film formation process. The salient features of the process are 1) the absence of any commonly used pre- and post-treatment steps and 2) wide film thickness control. The new process is different from direct film-formation processes such as the spin-coating and drop-casting methods. The film thickness can be controlled in the range of 1 to 30 μm. In this study, we investigated the dependence of the electrical conductivity ( σ ) and Seebeck coefficient ( S ) on the film thickness ( d ). While the value of σ increased with decreasing d , S decreased slightly with decreasing d . By this process, values of σ = 1070 S / c m and S = 16.0 μ V / K were achieved for d = 1.1 μ m , using ethanol as the gelling solvent. Ethanol plays the important roles of removing excess PSS and inducing subsequent gelling.