Premium
Inkjet Printed Large‐Area Flexible Few‐Layer Graphene Thermoelectrics
Author(s) -
Juntunen Taneli,
Jussila Henri,
Ruoho Mikko,
Liu Shouhu,
Hu Guohua,
AlbrowOwen Tom,
Ng Leonard W. T.,
Howe Richard C. T.,
Hasan Tawfique,
Sun Zhipei,
Tittonen Ilkka
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201800480
Subject(s) - graphene , materials science , thermoelectric effect , thermoelectric materials , nanoporous , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , thermal conductivity , composite material , physics , thermodynamics
Graphene‐based organic nanocomposites have ascended as promising candidates for thermoelectric energy conversion. In order to adopt existing scalable printing methods for developing thermostable graphene‐based thermoelectric devices, optimization of both the material ink and the thermoelectric properties of the resulting films are required. Here, inkjet‐printed large‐area flexible graphene thin films with outstanding thermoelectric properties are reported. The thermal and electronic transport properties of the films reveal the so‐called phonon‐glass electron‐crystal character (i.e., electrical transport behavior akin to that of few‐layer graphene flakes with quenched thermal transport arising from the disordered nanoporous structure). As a result, the all‐graphene films show a room‐temperature thermoelectric power factor of 18.7 µW m −1 K −2 , representing over a threefold improvement to previous solution‐processed all‐graphene structures. The demonstration of inkjet‐printed thermoelectric devices underscores the potential for future flexible, scalable, and low‐cost thermoelectric applications, such as harvesting energy from body heat in wearable applications.