High performance n-type Ag2Se film on nylon membrane for flexible thermoelectric power generator

Yufei Ding,Kefeng Cai,Yang Qiu,Song Chen,Qin Yao,Lidong Chen,Jiaqing He

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08835-5

Abstract

Researches on flexible thermoelectric materials usually focus on conducting polymers and conducting polymer-based composites; however, it is a great challenge to obtain high thermoelectric properties comparable to inorganic counterparts. Here, we report an n-type Ag2Se film on flexible nylon membrane with an ultrahigh power factor ~987.4 ± 104.1 μWm−1K−2 at 300 K and an excellent flexibility (93% of the original electrical conductivity retention after 1000 bending cycles around a 8-mm diameter rod). The flexibility is attributed to a synergetic effect of the nylon membrane and the Ag2Se film intertwined with numerous high-aspect-ratio Ag2Se grains. A thermoelectric prototype composed of 4-leg of the Ag2Se film generates a voltage and a maximum power of 18 mV and 460 nW, respectively, at a temperature difference of 30 K. This work opens opportunities of searching for high performance thermoelectric film for flexible thermoelectric devices.

Highlights

Researches on flexible thermoelectric materials usually focus on conducting polymers and conducting polymer-based composites; it is a great challenge to obtain high thermoelectric properties comparable to inorganic counterparts
X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the film reveals that all the XRD peaks (Fig. 1a) can be indexed to β-Ag2Se phase (JCPDS No 24-1041)
The XRD peaks for the Ag2Se film are stronger than those for the Ag2Se nanowires (NWs) (Supplementary Fig. 3a), and especially the (002) and (004) plane peaks become strong, indicating increase of crystallinity and a large number of the Ag2Se grains preferentially grown along the (00l) plane[31]

Summary

Introduction

Researches on flexible thermoelectric materials usually focus on conducting polymers and conducting polymer-based composites; it is a great challenge to obtain high thermoelectric properties comparable to inorganic counterparts. Most recently, Hou et al.[17] prepared p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 and epoxy resin composite thick film by hot-pressing (623 K, 4 MPa) and the film shows a high power factor (PF = α2σ) of 840 μW m−1 K−2. Flexible substrate, such as polyimide, fiber or paper, has been used to support inorganic materials for preparing high performance and flexible TE materials[17,18,19,20,21,22]. The films are with relatively high cost since an expensive facility is used

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Conclusion