All-Organic Textile Thermoelectrics with Carbon-Nanotube-Coated n-Type Yarns.

Thermoelectric textiles that are able to generate electricity from heat gradients may find use as power sources for a wide range of miniature wearable electronics. To realize such thermoelectric textiles, both p- and n-type yarns are needed. The realization of air-stable and flexible n-type yarns, i.

Machine-Washable PEDOT:PSS Dyed Silk Yarns for Electronic Textiles.

Durable, electrically conducting yarns are a critical component of electronic textiles (e-textiles). Here, such yarns with exceptional wear and wash resistance are realized through dyeing silk from the silkworm Bombyx mori with the conjugated polymer:polyelectrolyte complex PEDOT:PSS. A high Young's modulus of approximately 2 GPa combined with a robust and scalable dyeing process results in up to 40 m long yarns that maintain their bulk electrical conductivity of approximately 14 S cm when experiencing repeated bending stress as well as mechanical wear during sewing.

Thermoelectric plastics: from design to synthesis, processing and structure-property relationships.

Thermoelectric plastics are a class of polymer-based materials that combine the ability to directly convert heat to electricity, and vice versa, with ease of processing. Potential applications include waste heat recovery, spot cooling and miniature power sources for autonomous electronics. Recent progress has led to surging interest in organic thermoelectrics.

Flexible macrocycles as versatile supports for catalytically active metal clusters.

Here we present three structurally diverse clusters stabilised by the same macrocyclic polyphenol; t-butylcalix[8]arene. This work demonstrates the range of conformations the flexible ligand is capable of adopting, highlighting its versatility in metal coordination. In addition, a Ti complex displays activity for the ring-opening polymerisation of lactide.

Photoinduced p- to n-type Switching in Thermoelectric Polymer-Carbon Nanotube Composites.

UV-induced switching from p- to n-type character is demonstrated during deposition of carbon-nanotube-conjugated polymer composites. This opens the possibility to photopattern n-type regions within an otherwise p-type film, which has a potential for complementary circuitry or, as shown here, thermoelectric generators made from a single solution.