Abstract
This chapter presents the most important advances in the development of thermoelectric (TE) materials based on nanostructured polymers for the conversion of thermal waste energy to electrical energy. Firstly, it is stablished the fundamentals of the thermoelectric materials (i.e., Seebeck and Peltier effect, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and figure of merit) and explains briefly the main challenges about to enhance the figure of merit (ZT) (i.e., thermoelectric efficiency) of polymer materials and the strategies recently used to solve it (e.g., doping of conductive polymers and polymer nanocompounded). It is also reported the state of the art of nanostructured thermoelectric polymer materials of electrically conductive and insulating polymers with inorganic, metal, and carbon nanoparticles and the mixture of them. It is also discussed the effectiveness of the different strategies for enhancing the thermoelectric efficiency of these nanostructured materials. A perspective about the implementation of new approaches for the accelerated discovery (e.g., inverse design) of more efficient nanostructured thermoelectric polymer materials is also given. Finally, are presented some thermal waste energy applications (i.e., thermoelectrical generators).
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Mata-Padilla, J.M., Ávila-Orta, C.A., Cruz-Delgado, V.J., Martínez-Colunga, J.G. (2021). Nanostructured Polymers for Thermoelectric Conversion. In: Kharissova, O.V., Torres-Martínez, L.M., Kharisov, B.I. (eds) Handbook of Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites for Energy and Environmental Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36268-3_147
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