Self-Healable and Stretchable Organic Thermoelectric Materials: Electrically Percolated Polymer Nanowires Embedded in Thermoplastic Elastomer Matrix

Abstract

Self-healable and stretchable energy-harvesting materials can provide a new avenue for the realization of self-powered wearable electronics, including electronic skins, whose main materials are required to be robust to and stable under external damage and severe mechanical stresses. However, thermoelectric (TE) materials showing both self-healing properties and stretchability have not yet been demonstrated despite their great potential to harvest thermal energy in the human body. As most existing TE materials are either mechanically brittle or unrecoverable after being subjected to damage, a novel approach is necessary for designing such materials. Herein, self-healable and stretchable TE materials based on all-organic composite system wherein polymer semiconductor nanowires are p-doped with a molecular dopant and embedded in a thermoplastic elastomer matrix are reported. The polymer nanowires are electrically percolated in the matrix, and the resulting composite materials exhibit good TE performance. The composites also exhibit both excellent self-healing properties under mild heat and pressure conditions and good stretchability. It is believed that this work can be a cornerstone for the design of self-healable and stretchable energy-harvesting materials as it provides useful guidelines for imparting electrical conductivity to insulating thermoplastic elastomers, which typically possess versatile and useful mechanical properties.