Abstract
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have a wide range of unique properties, which have kept them at the forefront of research in recent decades. Due to their electrical and thermal characteristics, they are often evaluated as key components of thermogenerators. One can create thermogenerators exclusively from CNTs, without any metal counterpart, by properly selecting dopants to obtain n- and p-doped CNTs. However, the performance of CNT thermogenerators remains insufficient to reach wide commercial implementation. This study shows that molecular doping and the inclusion of ZnO nanowires (NWs) can greatly increase their application potential. Moreover, prototype modules, based on single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs), ZnO NWs, polyethyleneimine, and triazole, reveal notable capabilities for generating electrical energy, while ensuring fully scalable performance. Upon doping and the addition of ZnO nanowires, the electrical conductivity of pure SWCNTs (211 S/cm) was increased by a factor of three. Moreover, the proposed strategy enhanced the Power Factor values from 18.99 (unmodified SWCNTs) to 34.9 and 42.91 µW/m∙K2 for CNTs triazole and polyethyleneimine + ZnO NWs inclusion, respectively.
Highlights
Electrical energy generation is currently inefficient, and more than half of the energy is lost in the process as waste heat [4]
We investigate the possibility of using ZnO nanowires (NWs), having n-type characteristics [25], to enhance the thermoelectric performance of modules based on single-walled Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (SWCNTs)
The ZnO NWs synthesized in-house manifested a high degree of structural perfection (Figure 2b)
Summary
The progressing electrification of our daily lives puts more and more pressure on the electric grid [1–3]. A modern house contains numerous appliances, each of which requires electrical energy. Various gadgets, such as smartphones, smartwatches, etc., used by us require such resources to operate. More power plants are needed to fulfil the future demand. Electrical energy generation is currently inefficient, and more than half of the energy is lost in the process as waste heat [4]. It is, highly reasonable to address the challenge of the low overall yield of the current approach
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