5. Conclusion

The development of polymers for thermoelectricity is a relatively recent field of research. Considerable progress has been made over the period 2002-2012, and the factors of merit achieved in 2014 are close to those required for the commercialization of these systems. Their use in portable devices, enabled by their flexibility and low weight, has strong development potential in the field of energy and waste heat recovery. The performance of these systems, combined with their low cost and low toxicity compared with the inorganic materials currently used in thermoelectric devices, point to promising prospects for thermoelectric devices based on conducting polymers. However, there is still room for improvement in a number of areas, notably stability and electrical conductivity, while maintaining a high Seebeck coefficient. Optimizing the doping rate, the orientation and organization of polymer...