Electrically conducting polymer and inorganic-nanoparticle materials

Electrically conducting polymer and inorganic-nanoparticle materials can be suspended in solutions that can then be deposited to make solid electronic films. The wide range of mechanical and electronic properties of these solution-processable materials provides a rich playground for exploring the fundamental physics of their charge transport and enables the creation of designer material architectures that are challenging for conventional fabrication techniques. For example, barrier-free thermodynamic phase separation in polymer-nanoparticle composites can lead to the formation of interpenetrating continuous networks of components that exhibit a large chemically accessible interfacial area. Although theoretical and experimental results of some conducting polymer-nanoparticle composites have identified the importance of the properties of the interface, models of charge transport in these materials generally use an effective-medium that neglects interfacial effects. We are improving these approximations by using a PEDOT:PSS and Au nanoparticle composite to investigate the impact of nanoparticle formation on its macroscopic thermoelectric transport.