相较于传统的无机热电材料，聚合物复合热电材料具有良好的柔性、拉伸性和愈合能力，并因其原料丰富、价格低廉、重量轻、低毒或无毒、热导率低等优点而受到广泛关注。聚合物复合热电材料一般由纳米材料与导电聚合物组成，其中纳米材料通常包括碳纳米管、石墨烯、金属有机框架、MXenes和黑磷等；导电聚合物通常是聚噻吩及其衍生物、聚苯胺和聚吡咯。聚合物复合热电材料作为无机热电材料不可缺少的有益补充，除具有传统的热电材料利用热能发电的特点外，还结合了导电聚合物和纳米材料的优点。尽管其部分性能仍低于传统的无机热电材料，但已在各种传感器中展现了新的应用潜力。人工智能和机器学习作为新方法已被用于高效设计合成聚合物复合热电材料和增强其性能的研究。可以预见，聚合物复合热电材料有望取得长足进步，呈现更广阔的应用前景。

Devices made of thermoelectric materials can realize the interconversion between heat and electricity， which is based on the Seebeck effect and the Peltier effect respectively， without any moving elements. Different from conventional metallic and inorganic thermoelectric materials， thermoelectric polymer composites possess good flexibility， decent stretchability， and healing ability， thus arousing ever-increasing interests among researchers because they are abundant， inexpensive， light-weighted， low-toxic or non-toxic， and thermally less conductive. Generally， thermoelectric polymer composites comprise nanomaterials which are usually carbon nanotubes， graphene， metal organic frameworks， MXenes， black phosphorus， etc. and conductive polymers which are typically polythiophene and its derivatives， polyaniline， and polypyrrole. Apart from traditional use of generating electricity from heat for thermoelectric materials， polymer composites acting as an indispensable complement to inorganic thermoelectric materials have combined advantages of conductive polymers and nanomaterials and are finding new applications in various sensors although their performance in certain aspects remains below that of conventional metallic and inorganic thermoelectric materials. New toolkits like artificial intelligence and machine learning have been introduced as effective ways in facilitating efficient design， preparation， and performance enhancement of thermoelectric polymer composites. It is expected that thermoelectric polymer composites will make great progress and demonstrate many broader application scenarios.