Thermoelectric enhancement in single organic radical molecules

Juan Hurtado-Gallego, Sara Sangtarash, Ross Davidson, Laura Rincón-García, Abdalghani Daaoub, Gabino Rubio-Bollinger, Colin J. Lambert, Vasily S. Oganesyan, Martin R. Bryce, Nicolás Agraït, Hatef Sadeghi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Organic thermoelectric materials have potential for wearable heating, cooling, and energy generation devices at room temperature. For this to be technologically viable, high-conductance (G) and high-Seebeck-coefficient (S) materials are needed. For most semiconductors, the increase in S is accompanied by a decrease in G. Here, using a combined experimental and theoretical investigation, we demonstrate that a simultaneous enhancement of S and G can be achieved in single organic radical molecules, thanks to their intrinsic spin state. A counterintuitive quantum interference (QI) effect is also observed in stable Blatter radical molecules, where constructive QI occurs for a meta-connected radical, leading to further enhancement of thermoelectric properties. Compared to an analogous closed-shell molecule, the power factor is enhanced by more than 1 order of magnitude in radicals. These results open a new avenue for the development of organic thermoelectric materials operating at room temperature.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)948-953
Number of pages6
JournalNano Letters
Volume22
Issue number3
Early online date24 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Feb 2022

Keywords

  • Energy harvesting
  • organic thermoelectricity
  • quantum transport
  • single radical molecules

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