Abstract
Herein, Sb2Se3 and β-Cu2Se nanowires are synthesized via hydrothermal reaction and water evaporation-induced self-assembly methods, respectively. The successful syntheses and morphologies of the Sb2Se3 and β-Cu2Se nanowires are confirmed via X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and field emission transmission electron microscopy (FE-TEM). Sb2Se3 materials have low electrical conductivity which limits application to the thermoelectric generator. To improve the electrical conductivity of the Sb2Se3 and β-Cu2Se nanowires, polyaniline (PANI) is coated onto the surface and confirmed via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), FE-TEM, and XPS analysis. After coating PANI, the electrical conductivities of Sb2Se3/β-Cu2Se/PANI composites were increased. The thermoelectric performance of the flexible Sb2Se3/β-Cu2Se/PANI films is then measured, and the 70%-Sb2Se3/30%-β-Cu2Se/PANI film is shown to provide the highest power factor of 181.61 μW/m·K2 at 473 K. In addition, a thermoelectric generator consisting of five legs of the 70%-Sb2Se3/30%-β-Cu2Se/PANI film is constructed and shown to provide an open-circuit voltage of 7.9 mV and an output power of 80.1 nW at ΔT = 30 K. This study demonstrates that the combination of inorganic thermoelectric materials and flexible polymers can generate power in wearable or portable devices.
Highlights
In recent years, thermoelectric materials have been studied for use in the thermoelectric generator (TEG) or Peltier cooler
Inorganic thermoelectric materials based on Bi2 Te3 [1,2], PbTe [3,4], SnSe [5,6], Cu2 Se [7,8], skutterudites [9,10], and Zintl phases [11,12] have been studied during the past few decades
These results demonstrate that the Sb2 Se3 /β-Cu2 Se/PANI flexible thin film can be used as a TEG for flexible devices
Summary
Thermoelectric materials have been studied for use in the thermoelectric generator (TEG) or Peltier cooler. Organic thermoelectric materials such as the conducting polymers PEDOT:PSS [13,14,15], polyaniline (PANI) [16,17,18], polythiophene [19], and polypyrrole [20,21] can exhibit lightweight, low-cost, non-toxic, and flexible properties but display low efficiency compared to their inorganic counterparts. Ag2 Se nanowire/Polyvinylidene fluoride composite film via a solution mixing method These studies show a combination of inorganic thermoelectric materials and polymers can be used for improvement thermoelectric performances [22]. In our previous work, it was found that the rigid and brittle nature of the resulting inorganic thermoelectric composites makes them difficult to use in preparing flexible films To address this problem, a flexible thin film of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is developed. These results demonstrate that the Sb2 Se3 /β-Cu2 Se/PANI flexible thin film can be used as a TEG for flexible devices
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