  Polypyrrole chemically synthesized on PET gives rise to textiles with a high
electric conductivity, suitable for several applications from antistatics to
electromagnetic interference shielding devices. Here, we discuss investigations
on thermal electric performances of the polypyrrole coated PET in a wide range
of temperatures above room temperature. The Seebeck coefficient turns out to be
comparable with that of metal thermocouple materials. Since polypyrrole shows
extremely low thermal diffusivities regardless of the electrical conductivity,
the low thermal conductivity gives significant advantage to the thermoelectric
figure-of-merit ZT, comparable with that of some traditional inorganic
thermoelectric materials. The heat generation is also investigated for possible
heating textile devices.
