Thermoelectrics convert thermal energy into electricity and has the potential to power small sensors for the internet of things, wearable electronic devices, point-of-care therapy and diagnosis, industry and agriculture depending on the thermal energy source. The main sources of thermal energy are the Sun, geothermal, waste heat from human activities and biochemical heat (body temperature). Thus, depending on the heat source wide variety of thermoelectric materials that suit our needs can be deployed to relieve the burden on conventional power-grids. Polymer semiconductors doped with small molecules are widely sought out for thermoelectric applications because of their processability (into thinfilms), flexibility, low-toxicity, lightweight and mechanical flexibility. Thermoelectric performance of a semiconducting polymer depends on its electrical conductivity, molecular doping is one of the common strategies employed to increase the conductivity thereby the thermoelectric performance. Understanding the doping mechanism in organic semiconductors and generating molecular design rules to control the doping process is crucial to improve the performance of organic electronics that deals with both electronic rich and poor components including light emitting diodes, solar cells and thermoelectrics. Even though controlling the location and orientation of the dopant along the semiconductor backbone is an important step in the doping mechanism, studies in this direction are scarce as it is a challenging task. We used π-face masked (strapped) units to control the acceptor (dopant) location along the trimer, donor-acceptor binding strength, and acceptor ionization. In this talk I will discuss the impact of strapped units on polymers solubility, strength of interaction with acceptor, and ionization of acceptor.

Strapped pi-conjugated polymers interaction with acceptors

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.