Metallopolymers with Ferrocenyl and TEMPO Radical Units and Thermoelectric Properties of their Composites with Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Radical-containing metallopolymers (RCMPs) represent a promising class of thermoelectric (TE) materials. Here, three RCMPs with the ferrocenyl moiety R1, R2, and R3 are synthesized. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are used to form the composites with each of these RCMPs and the morphological, spectroscopic electrochemical, and thermoelectric properties of the three polymer composites are studied. Composite R3/SWCNT shows the highest electrical conductivity (675.7 +/- 36.0 S cm(-1)) and power factor (174.3 +/- 5.5 mu W m(-1) K-2) compared to R1 and R2. It is shown that when the ferrocenyl unit is incorporated into the main chain of the polymer backbone, it reveals a better TE performance than that with the ferrocenyl unit at the periphery.