Hindawi Publishing Corporation Te Scientifc World Journal Volume 2013, Article ID 713640, 17 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/713640 Review Article A Review on the Fabrication of Polymer-Based Thermoelectric Materials and Fabrication Methods Muhammad Akmal Kamarudin, 1 Shahrir Razey Sahamir, 1 Robi Shankar Datta, 1 Bui Duc Long, 2 Mohd Faizul Mohd Sabri, 2 and Suhana Mohd Said 1 1 Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to Suhana Mohd Said; smsaid@um.edu.my Received 30 August 2013; Accepted 23 September 2013 Academic Editors: O. Gullu and P. Shao Copyright © 2013 Muhammad Akmal Kamarudin et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Termoelectricity, by converting heat energy directly into useable electricity, ofers a promising technology to convert heat from solar energy and to recover waste heat from industrial sectors and automobile exhausts. In recent years, most of the eforts have been done on improving the thermoelectric efciency using diferent approaches, that is, nanostructuring, doping, molecular rattling, and nanocomposite formation. Te applications of thermoelectric polymers at low temperatures, especially conducting polymers, have shown various advantages such as easy and low cost of fabrication, light weight, and fexibility. In this review, we will focus on exploring new types of polymers and the efects of diferent structures, concentrations, and molecular weight on thermoelectric properties. Various strategies to improve the performance of thermoelectric materials will be discussed. In addition, a discussion on the fabrication of thermoelectric devices, especially suited to polymers, will also be given. Finally, we provide the challenge and the future of thermoelectric polymers, especially thermoelectric hybrid model. 1. Introduction Global energy uncertainty and the limited resources coupled with increased energy demands provide the impetus for improving the efciency of energy conversion technologies [1]. Terefore, the requirements of materials and technologies had been focused on those that contribute to energy con- servation, safety, and environmental protection which lower the emission of CO 2 [2]. Termoelectricity, by converting heat energy directly into useable electricity, ofers a promising technology to convert heat from the sun and to recover waste heat from industrial sectors and automobile exhausts [1–3]. Te thermoelectric efect was frst discovered by Tomas Seebeck in 1821 [1] when he discovered that twisting two wires together and twisting one end induced a voltage. Te converse efect, that is, application of voltage to induce a temperature gradient across the thermoelectric material, was discovered by Jean Peltier [1] in 1834, and is thus called the Peltier efect. Te performance of the thermoelectric material is evalu- ated by the dimensionless fgure of merit (ZT), ZT =  2 /, where  is the electrical conductivity,  is the thermal conductivity,  is the absolute temperature, and  is the Seebeck coefcient ( = Δ/Δ, that is, the ratio of the induced voltage over the temperature gradient across the thermoelectric device) [2]. Tus, a high performance thermoelectric material requires high electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefcient, and low thermal conductivity. It is really challenging to fnd a material which has a high Seebeck coef- fcient () in combination with high electrical conductivity () and low thermal conductivity (). In most materials, the electrical conductivity is directly proportional to the thermal conductivity. An ideal TE material would possess a high Seebeck coefcient as in the crystalline semiconductor, high electrical conductivity as in the crystalline metal, and low absolute temperature as in glass [4]. For practical applica- tions, such as thermal generators (TEGs), a ZT of more than 3 is required, whilst the best eforts currently only produce a ZT of 3 [5]. Early thermoelectrical devices developed in the early 1960s earned some popularity given the solid state nature of