A thermally activated and highly miscible dopant for n-type organic thermoelectrics
Chi‐Yuan Yang, Yifan Ding, Dazhen Huang, Jue Wang, Ze‐Fan Yao, Chun‐Xi Huang, Yang Lu, Hio‐Ieng Un, Fang‐Dong Zhuang, Jin‐Hu Dou, Chong‐an Di, Daoben Zhu, Jie‐Yu Wang, Ting Lei, Jian Pei
Abstract
Abstract N-doping plays an irreplaceable role in controlling the electron concentration of organic semiconductors thus to improve performance of organic semiconductor devices. However, compared with many mature p-doping methods, n-doping of organic semiconductor is still of challenges. In particular, dopant stability/processability, counterion-semiconductor immiscibility and doping induced microstructure non-uniformity have restricted the application of n-doping in high-performance devices. Here, we report a computer-assisted screening approach to rationally design of a triaminomethane-type dopant, which exhibit extremely high stability and strong hydride donating property due to its thermally activated doping mechanism. This triaminomethane derivative shows excellent counterion-semiconductor miscibility (counter cations stay with the polymer side chains), high doping efficiency and uniformity. By using triaminomethane, we realize a record n-type conductivity of up to 21 S cm −1 and power factors as high as 51 μW m −1 K −2 even in films with thicknesses over 10 μm, and we demonstrate the first reported all-polymer thermoelectric generator.