Fabrication of flexible SWCNTs-Te composite films for improving thermoelectric properties

Abstract

Flexible wearable power-conversion devices have attracted more and more attentions for the researches, with the development of science and technology. As an alternative, we show a simple solution processable method for enhancing the thermoelectric (TE) properties of flexible single-wall carbon nanotubes based (SWCNTs-based) composites. Tellurium (Te) nanoparticles distributed on SWCNTs affecting the intrinsic carrier concentration and energy barrier of the composites, which resulting in the enhanced Seebeck coefficient and power factor. The optimized flexible TE composite films show a high power factor of 36.4 μW m−1 K−2, which is more than one order of magnitude higher than the previous optimized SWCNTs-Te composites with SWCNTs and Te nanowires. The optimized composite film also displayed high flexibility, the electrical conductivity only decreases by about 17% at 1000 bends. This work proposes a simple approach to improve Seebeck coefficient and power factor for flexible SWCNTs-based composite films.