Self-Assembled Organic Thermoelectric Generator Materials

Thermoelectric materials convert a temperature gradient to electricity.

The human body generates a temperature gradient compared with the air that is sufficient to mean that the thermoelectric effect could be used such that wearable devices could provide sufficient power for a range of devices from personal technology to monitoring vital body signs.

Wearable monitoring devices would remove the need for invasive and often stressful hospital visits for patients and more realistic long-term monitoring of patients.

Most thermoelectrics are inorganic but inorganics suffer from issues with toxicity, the need for high operating temperatures and difficulties in terms of forming robust films suitable for flexible devices.

Organic thermoelectrics are much less well developed, but have great potential as they are lower cost, processable and critically can be flexible, which is hugely advantageous for wearable electronics.

Here, we will synthesise, characterise and exploit new flexible organic thermoelectric materials prepared from self-assembled molecules.