ABSTRACT
Thermoelectric materials have been mostly inorganics based on metals, alloys, and inorganic compounds for a long time, but recently we have witnessed a rapid growth of organics for near room-temperature applications [1-5]. High thermoelectric performance of organic materials appear to be mainly due to their low thermal conductivity, and the guiding principle to get high ZT (= S2σT/κ, S: Seebeck coefcient, σ: electrical conductivity, κ: thermal conductivity, T: absolute temperature) is to enhance the power factor, S2σ, of low thermal conductivity organics. This is completely opposite to that for exploiting inorganic thermoelectric materials, which usually possess high power factor but also high thermal conductivity.
