Irregular hierarchical-porous polymer for high-performance soft thermoelectrics
- Xiao Zhang
- Dongyang Wang
- Liyao Liu
- Zhiyi Li
- Zhen Ji
- Xuefeng Zhang
- Chunlin Xu
- Chaoyi Yan
- Min Wang
- Yuqiu Di
- Lixin Niu
- Zepang Zhan
- Yue Zhao
- Xiaojuan Dai
- Yong Guan
- Bo Guan
- Cheng Li
- Ye Zou
- Dong Wang
- Fengjiao ZHANG
- Deqing Zhang
- Daoben Zhu
- Chong-an Di
2026-03-05
Polymer thermoelectrics offer an inherently soft, cost-effective, and lightweight solution to convert ubiquitous heat sources into sustainable electricity. However, their realistic applications are hindered by insufficient performance and the scaling complexity. We introduce irregular hierarchical-porous thermoelectric polymers, featuring irregularly shaped and distributed pores with diameters that range from less than 10 nanometers to micrometers. This porous structure not only enhances multiple phonon-like scattering, achieving a 72% reduction in lattice thermal conductivity, but also unexpectedly improves charge transport through nanoconfinement-enhanced crystallization. The optimized film yields a benchmark figure-of-merit zT of 1.64 at 343 kelvin. Moreover, this method is compatible with easy-to-process spray-coating techniques.