According to different sources, from forty to sixty percent of the overall energy generated in the world today is squandered in waste heat. The existing energy conversion technologies are either close to their efficiency limits or too costly to justify their implementation. Therefore, the development of new technological approaches for waste heat recovery is highly demanded. The field of thermoelectrics can potentially provide an inexpensive, clean and efficient solution to waste heat underutilization, given that a new type of thermoelectric materials capable of meeting those requirements are available. This thesis reports on strategies to optimize a thermoelectric efficiency (ZT) of conducting polymers, more specifically poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (Pedot). Conducting polymers constitute a special class of semiconductors characterized by low thermal conductivity as well as electrical conductivity and thermopower that can be readily modified by doping in order to achieve the best combination of thermoelectric parameters. Conducting polymers that have never previously been regarded as hypothetically compatible for thermoelectric energy conversion, can exhibit promising thermoelectric performance at moderate temperatures, which is a sought-after quality for waste heat recovery. A rather substandard thermoelectric efficiency of Pedot-Pss can be markedly improved by various secondary dopants whose addition usually improves polymer’s morphology accompanied by a drastic increase in electrical conductivity and, consequently, in ZT. In order to enable further enhancement in thermoelectric properties, the optimization of the charge carrier concentration is commonly used. The oxidation level of Pedot-Pss can be precisely controlled by electrochemical doping resulting in a tenfold increase of ZT. In contrast to Pedot-Pss, another conducting polymer Pedot-Tos exhibits superior thermoelectric performance even without secondary doping owning to its partially crystalline nature that allows for an improved electronic conduction. With the aid of a strong electron donor, positively doped Pedot-Tos gets partially reduced reaching the optimum oxidation state at which its thermoelectric efficiency is just four times smaller than that of Be2Te3 and the highest among all stable conducting polymers. The downsides associated with chemical doping of Pedot-Tos such as doping inhomogeneity or chemical dopants air sensitivity can be surmounted if the doping level of Pedot-Tos is controlled by acidity/basicity of the polymer. This approach yields similar maximum thermoelectric efficiency but does not necessitate inert conditions for sample preparation. Optimized Pedot-Tos/Pedot-Pss can be functionalized as a p-type material in organic thermogenerators (OTEG) to power low energy electronic devices. If printed on large areas, OTEGs could be used as an alternative technique for capturing heat discarded by industrial processes, households, transportation sector or any natural heat sources for electricity production.

xi, 193 p. : ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / State of the art semiconductor materials engineering provides the possibility to fabricate devices on the lower end of the mesoscopic scale and confine only a handful of electrons to a region of space. When the thermal energy is reduced below the energetic quantum level spacing, the confined electrons assume energy levels akin to the core-shell structure of natural atoms. Such "artificial atoms", also known as quantum dots, can be loaded with electrons, one-by-one, and subsequently unloaded using source and drain electrical contacts. As such, quantum dots are uniquely tunable platforms for performing quantum transport and quantum control experiments. Voltage-biased electron transport through quantum dots has been studied extensively. Far less attention has been given to thermoelectric effects in quantum dots, that is, electron transport induced by a temperature gradient. This dissertation focuses on the efficiency of direct thermal-to-electric energy conversion in InAs/InP quantum dots embedded in nanowires. The efficiency of thermoelectric heat engines is bounded by the same maximum efficiency as cyclic heat engines; namely, by Carnot efficiency. The efficiency of bulk thermoelectric materials suffers from their inability to transport charge carriers selectively based on energy. Owing to their three-dimensional momentum quantization, quantum dots operate as electron energy filters--a property which can be harnessed to minimize entropy production and therefore maximize efficiency. This research was motivated by the possibility to realize experimentally a thermodynamic heat engine operating with near-Carnot efficiency using the unique behavior of quantum dots. To this end, a microscopic heating scheme for the application of a temperature difference across a quantum dot was developed in conjunction with a novel quantum-dot thermometry technique used for quantifying the magnitude of the applied temperature difference. While pursuing high-efficiency thermoelectric performance, many mesoscopic thermoelectric effects were observed and studied, including Coulomb-blockade thermovoltage oscillations, thermoelectric power generation, and strong nonlinear behavior. In the end, a quantum-dot-based thermoelectric heat engine was achieved and demonstrated an electronic efficiency of up to 95% Carnot efficiency. / Committee in charge: Stephen Kevan, Chairperson, Physics; Heiner Linke, Member, Physics; Roger Haydock, Member, Physics; Stephen Hsu, Member, Physics; David Johnson, Outside Member, Chemistry