Monolithic oxide–metal composite thermoelectric generators for energy harvesting

Abstract

Monolithic oxide–metal composite thermoelectric generators (TEGs) were fabricated using multilayer co-fired ceramic technology. These devices consisted of Ni0.9Mo0.1 and La0.035Sr0.965TiO3 as p- and n-type thermoelectric materials, and Y0.03Zr0.97O2 was used as an insulator, sandwiched between p- and n-type layers. To co-fire dissimilar materials, p-type layers contained 20 wt. % La0.035Sr0.965TiO3; thus, these were oxide–metal composite layers. The fabricated device had 50 pairs of p–i–n junctions of 5.9 mm × 7.0 mm × 2.6 mm. The calculated maximum value of the electric power output from the device was 450 mW/cm2 at ΔT = 360 K. Furthermore, this device generated 100 μW at ΔT = 10 K and operated a radio frequency (RF) transmitter circuit module assumed to be a sensor network system.