Stretchable Nanolayered Thermoelectric Energy Harvester on Complex and Dynamic Surfaces

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c01225
• Publication Date: 2020-05-05T14:17:07Z
• Authors: Yang Yang; Hongjie Hu; Zeyu Chen; Ziyu Wang; Laiming Jiang; Gengxi Lu; Xiangjia Li; Ruimin Chen; Jie Jin; Haochen Kang; Hengxi Chen; Shuang Lin; Siqi Xiao; Hanyu Zhao; Rui Xiong; Jing Shi; Qifa Zhou; Sheng Xu; Yong Chen
• Keywords: Thermoelectric generator; Electric potential energy

Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) provide a unique solution for energy harvesting from waste heat, presenting potential green energy. However, traditional rigid and flexible TEGs cannot work on complex dynamic surfaces. Here, we report stretchable TEG (S-TEG) (over 50% stretchability of the entire device) that is geometrically suitable various surfaces heat sources. The S-TEG consists hot-pressed nanolayered p-(Sb2Te3) n-(Bi2Te3)-type thermoelectric couple arrays exploits wavy serpentine interconnects to integrate all units. internal resistance 10 × array 22 ohm, output power ∼0.15 mW/cm2 at ΔT = 19 K both developable nondevelopable surfaces, which are much improved compared with those existing S-TEGs. human skin offers wearable devices health monitoring.