Abstract
Transparent and flexible thermoelectrics has been highly sought after for future wearable devices. However, the main stumbling block to prevent its widespread adoption is the lack of p-type transparent thermoelectrics and the stringent criteria of electrical and thermal properties matching appropriately between p-legs and n-legs. This work demonstrates the fabrication of p-type PEDOT:PSS films whose optical properties, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and Seebeck coefficient were engineered to perfectly match the n-type indium tin oxide (ITO) counterparts. The dense p-type PEDOT:PSS and n-type ITO thin films show a thermoelectric figure of merit of zT = 0.30 and 0.29 at 450 K, and a thermal conductivity of 0.22 and 0.32 W m−1 K−1, respectively. A flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG) module with a high transmittance of >81% in the visible wavelength range of 400–800 nm is fabricated using 10 pairs of p-type PEDOT:PSS and n-type ITO thin film legs. An ultra-high power density of 22.2 W m−2 at a temperature gradient of 80 K was observed, which is the highest power density reported for organic/hybrid-based flexible TEGs so far. Our transparent flexible thin-film p–n junction thermoelectric module with exceptionally high power generation may take a tremendous step forward towards multi-functional wearable devices.
Highlights
As the size of our modern consumer electronics gets smaller, the waste heat generated from the energy conversion processes inevitably grows larger
In order to integrate thermoelectrics into existing devices, flexibility and sometimes transparency are of paramount importance due to the fact these two features are necessary for a plethora of small-sized consumer electronics, internet-of-things, and wearable devices
We report a thermoelectric generator (TEG) module that is both transparent and flexible while at the same time retaining good thermoelectric performances in both p-type and n-type legs
Summary
As the size of our modern consumer electronics gets smaller, the waste heat generated from the energy conversion processes inevitably grows larger. Mobility, the electrical conductivity can be sensitively tuned by carefully controlling the gas mixtures during deposition
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