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This work studies the modification of commercially available dispersions of intrinsically conductive polymer PEDOT:PSS with a strong base, KOH. It is concluded that addition of base derives a dedoping of the PEDOT chain and increase Seebeck coefficient from 15 µV/K to 90 µV/K. Supportive UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy was used for tracking the doping level of the polymer. A surface morphology study of the dedoped PEDOT:PSS films was monitored by SEM. It was shown that if KOH is used in excess with respect to the acid component of PEDOT:PSS dispersions, it segregates at the surface forming crystallites. They, however could be easily removed by methanol rinsing without destroying the sample integrity. After material modification, a dispenser-printed polymer unileg-TEG with 61 unicouples was fabricated by printing. The TEG in form of 253 mm-long stripe shows a flexible behavior. At 90 K temperature difference a resulting power output of ~ 100 nW could be measured. We suggest that the low power output is due to a high internal generator resistance.

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Bismuth antimony telluride (BixSb2-xTe3, 0.4 < x< 0.6) is one of the best and most-used p-type semiconductor materials for near-room-temperature thermoelectric power generation. In this work, p-type Bi0.4Sb1.6Te3 samples were prepared under various conditions (temperature, holding time, and ramp-rate) using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effects of SPS conditions on the anisotropic thermoelectric properties and microstructure evolutions were systematically investigated. The change of sintering temperature showed stronger influence than other sintering parameters to the resulting thermoelectric properties. Samples sintered over the temperature range between 653 K and 773 K showed significant differences in the degrees of orientations. The change was mainly caused by grain growth and re-orientation. Despite of the anisotropy, zT value as high as 1.2 to 1.3 was achieved over the temperature range of 300 to 360 K by directly using commercial power sintered at 723 and 773 K. The sintering profiles and microstructure evolutions during SPS were illustrated and the thermoelectric properties as a function of the degrees of orientations were shown and discussed in detail

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