Thermal conductivity characterization of polyaniline doped material for thermoelectric applications

Polyaniline is an organic intrinsically conductive polymer. With suitable doping it exhibits interesting values of both electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient, making it an interesting material for energy harvesting by conversion of heat energy in electric one in the range of temperature below 150 °C. The manufacturing of such material in thin and flexible sheets is furtherly interesting for a potential wearable use. Nonetheless, the value of thermal conductivity, that should be as low as possible to make more efficient the conversion, remains a challenging parameters to tune. IR thermography, thanks to its imaging capability, is an interesting instrument to conduct photothermal experiments that allow the characterization of thermal conductivity of these sheets, simultaneously through-the-thickness and in-plane.