Aluminum-doped zinc oxide–coated 3D spacer fabrics with electroless plated copper contacts for textile thermoelectric generators

Abstract

The technology of electroless metal plating was investigated for coating of three-dimensional spacer fabrics with copper (Cu) serving as contact layers. A subsequent etching process allowed the structuring of the spacer fabrics and thus the exposure of the spacer threads, which were coated with the thermoelectrically active semiconductor material aluminum-doped zinc oxide (Al:ZnO or AZO). For this, the atomic layer deposition was used. The material combination AZO/Cu used for a single thermoelectric-active element with a size of 30 × 30 mm2 worked as a small thermoelectric generator and showed a maximum output power of 0.16 μW at a temperature difference of 62 K. AZO as an alternative non-toxic thermoelectric material exhibited a temperature-dependent Seebeck coefficient (e.g. 55 μV/K for ΔT = 50 K).