Abstract
Thermoelectric power generation offers a promising way to recover waste heat. The geometrical design of thermoelectric legs in modules is important to ensure sustainable power generation but cannot be easily achieved by traditional fabrication processes. Herein, we propose the design of cellular thermoelectric architectures for efficient and durable power generation, realized by the extrusion-based 3D printing process of Cu2Se thermoelectric materials. We design the optimum aspect ratio of a cuboid thermoelectric leg to maximize the power output and extend this design to the mechanically stiff cellular architectures of hollow hexagonal column- and honeycomb-based thermoelectric legs. Moreover, we develop organic binder-free Cu2Se-based 3D-printing inks with desirable viscoelasticity, tailored with an additive of inorganic Se82− polyanion, fabricating the designed topologies. The computational simulation and experimental measurement demonstrate the superior power output and mechanical stiffness of the proposed cellular thermoelectric architectures to other designs, unveiling the importance of topological designs of thermoelectric legs toward higher power and longer durability.
Highlights
Thermoelectric power generation offers a promising way to recover waste heat
To design the topology of Cu2Se TE legs toward higher power generating performance as well as mechanical durability, we developed a 3D finite element models (FEMs) to calculate P, ΔT, and electrical resistance of a thermoelectric generators (TEGs) (Fig. 1a–d, and Supplementary Fig. 1)
The major geometrical control parameter of a TE leg is an aspect ratio in a cuboid since the aspect ratio dependence on the output power has the trade-off relation between a module resistance and a temperature difference (ΔT) across a TE leg[29,30,50]
Summary
To design the topology of Cu2Se TE legs toward higher power generating performance as well as mechanical durability, we developed a 3D FEM to calculate P, ΔT, and electrical resistance of a TEG (Fig. 1a–d, and Supplementary Fig. 1). The major geometrical control parameter of a TE leg is an aspect ratio in a cuboid since the aspect ratio dependence on the output power has the trade-off relation between a module resistance and a temperature difference (ΔT) across a TE leg[29,30,50]. We define the aspect ratio as the ratio of the leg length (l) to cross-sectional area (A) (Fig. 1a and Supplementary Fig. 1a). In this computation, we used the TE properties of the 3D-printed Cu2Se TE materials.
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