TY - JOUR
T1 - Carrier-carrier Coulomb interactions reduce power factor in organic thermoelectrics
AU - Koopmans, Marten
AU - Koster, L. Jan Anton
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the Center for Information Technology of the University of Groningen for their support and for providing access to the Peregrine high performance computing cluster. This work is part of the research program of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). This is a publication by the FOM Focus Group “Next Generation Organic Photovoltaics,” participating in the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Author(s).
PY - 2021/10/4
Y1 - 2021/10/4
N2 - Organic semiconductors are excellent candidates for low temperature thermoelectric generators. However, such thermoelectric applications require materials be doped and highly conductive. Here, we show how doping affects the Seebeck coefficient in organic semiconductors using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. Employing a hopping transport approach, we demonstrate that at high dopant loading, carrier-carrier interactions can reduce the Seebeck coefficient. This results in systems with intrinsic disorder, still following Heike's formula for thermopower at high dopant density. Reducing these carrier-carrier interactions results in an increased Seebeck coefficient and power factor. Specifically, a realistic reduction in carrier-carrier interactions can increase the power factor by more than a factor 15, increasing ZT above 1 for organic thermoelectrics.
AB - Organic semiconductors are excellent candidates for low temperature thermoelectric generators. However, such thermoelectric applications require materials be doped and highly conductive. Here, we show how doping affects the Seebeck coefficient in organic semiconductors using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. Employing a hopping transport approach, we demonstrate that at high dopant loading, carrier-carrier interactions can reduce the Seebeck coefficient. This results in systems with intrinsic disorder, still following Heike's formula for thermopower at high dopant density. Reducing these carrier-carrier interactions results in an increased Seebeck coefficient and power factor. Specifically, a realistic reduction in carrier-carrier interactions can increase the power factor by more than a factor 15, increasing ZT above 1 for organic thermoelectrics.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116910661&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1063/5.0071208
DO - 10.1063/5.0071208
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85116910661
SN - 0003-6951
VL - 119
JO - Applied Physics Letters
JF - Applied Physics Letters
IS - 14
M1 - 143301
ER -