Organic covalent modification to improve thermoelectric properties of TaS(2)

Organic semiconductors are attracting considerable attention as a new thermoelectric material because of their molecular diversity, non-toxicity and easy processing. The side chains which are introduced into two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) by covalent modification lead to a significant decrease in their thermal conductivity. Here, we describe a simple approach to preparing the side chains covalent modification TaS(2) (SCCM-TaS(2)) organic/inorganic hybrid structures, which is a homogeneous and non-destructive technique that does not depend on defects and boundaries. Electrical conductivity of 3,401 S cm(−1) and a power factor of 0.34 mW m(−1) K(−2) are obtained for a hybrid material of SCCM-TaS(2), with an in-plane thermal conductivity of 4.0 W m(−1) K(−1), which is 7 times smaller than the thermal conductivity of the pristine TaS(2) crystal. The power factor and low thermal conductivity contribute to a thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) of ~0.04 at 443 K.