Abstract
Thermoelectric technology can directly harvest the waste heat into electricity, which is a promising field of green and sustainable energy. In this aspect, flexible thermoelectrics (FTE) such as wearable fabrics, smart biosensing, and biomedical electronics offer a variety of applications. Since the nanofibers are one of the important constructions of FTE, inorganic thermoelectric fibers are focused on here due to their excellent thermoelectric performance and acceptable flexibility. Additionally, measurement and microstructure characterizations for various thermoelectric fibers (Bi-Sb-Te, Ag2Te, PbTe, SnSe and NaCo2O4) made by different fabrication methods, such as electrospinning, two-step anodization process, solution-phase deposition method, focused ion beam, and self-heated 3ω method, are detailed. This review further illustrates that some techniques, such as thermal drawing method, result in high performance of fiber-based thermoelectric properties, which can emerge in wearable devices and smart electronics in the near future.
Highlights
Natural energy reservoirs such as coal, oil, and gas have greatly been consumed in industrial power generation with the increasing electricity demand [1]; developing eco-friendly and sustainable energy resources has become an urgent need.portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, watches, microcomputers, and health monitoring systems, have achieved rapid development and progress in miniaturization and integration, which greatly promotes the era of intelligent Internet of Things (IOT) [2,3]
A single bendable thermoelectric fiber was formed from the nanoscale to microscale (Figure 1j) through thermal drawing process [31], which was specified by continuously pulling microscopic fibers from a macroscopic preform in a controllable manner; this technique usually requires that the Tg of the cladding materials needs to be higher than the Tm of the functional core materials
We reviewed the development of several classic inorganic thermoelectric fibers, which covered the Bi2 (Te, Se)3 - and Ag2 Te-based thermoelectric fibers near room temperature, PbTe-based and SnSe-based thermoelectric fibers at middle temperature, and
Summary
Natural energy reservoirs such as coal, oil, and gas have greatly been consumed in industrial power generation with the increasing electricity demand [1]; developing eco-friendly and sustainable energy resources has become an urgent need. Portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, watches, microcomputers, and health monitoring systems, have achieved rapid development and progress in miniaturization and integration, which greatly promotes the era of intelligent Internet of Things (IOT) [2,3]. In this scenario, thermoelectric (TE) materials have the potential to realize the conversion of waste heat and electricity, which can be used to address the abovementioned challenges [4,5,6]. The corresponding advanced characterization, performance evaluation, and the potential application of wearable thermoelectric fabrics or devices in power generation are summarized in this work
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