Thermoelectric technologies have been attracted much interest in field of renewable energy harvesting, owing to efficiently energy conversion between electricity and waste heat. The performance of thermoelectric materials is evaluated by the figure of merit (ZT) which is expressed as ZT = S²σT/κ where S, σ, and κ is the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity.^[1] In order to achieve a high ZT, thermoelectric materials have to show high power factor and low thermal conductivity. But, the thermoelectric properties have trade-off relationship which limited to improve in efficiency of thermoelectric device. ^[1] Recently, organic-inorganic hybrid thermoelectric device has received considerable attention from the researchers in the field of thermoelectrics, owing to characteristic that hybrid materials have been found to show higher thermoelectric properties compared to each individual component, thorough decoupling of thermoelectric factors.^[2,3] But, the hybrid thermoelectric materials are still developing for practical application due to mediocre in device efficiency, while the mechanism of enhancement is still under intense debate.^[4]

 In this study, we report an organic-inorganic hybrid material which is consisted of Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), telluride nanowire, and hydrophilic cross-linking agent. The thermoelectric performance of hybrid thermoelectric device showed higher than that of organic or inorganic material based thermoelectric devices. We will discuss about details that are controlling of thermoelectric and mechanical property in organic-inorganic hybrid materials by adding hydrophilic cross-linking agent. In addition, we also explain the mechanism of enhancement in hybrid thermoelectric device.

[1] G. J. Snyder, E. S. Toberer, Nat. Mater. 2008, 7, 105.