Low‐Cost and Biodegradable Thermoelectric Devices Based on van der Waals Semiconductors on Paper Substrates

Abstract

We present a method to fabricate handcrafted thermoelectric devices on standard office paper substrates. The devices are based on thin films of WS2, Te, and BP (P‐type semiconductors) and TiS3 and TiS2 (N‐type semiconductors), deposited by simply rubbing powder of these materials against paper. The thermoelectric properties of these semiconducting films revealed maximum Seebeck coefficients of (+1.32 ± 0.27) mV K−1 and (−0.82 ± 0.15) mV K−1 for WS2 and TiS3, respectively. Additionally, Peltier elements were fabricated by interconnecting the P‐ and N‐type films with graphite electrodes. A thermopower value up to 6.11 mV K−1 was obtained when the Peltier element were constructed with three junctions. The findings of this work show proof‐of‐concept devices to illustrate the potential application of semiconducting van der Waals materials in future thermoelectric power generation as well as temperature sensing for low‐cost disposable electronic devices.