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Strain‐Induced Rolled Thin Films for Lightweight Tubular Thermoelectric Generators
Author(s) -
Singh Devendra,
Kutbee Arwa T.,
Ghoneim Mohamed T.,
Hussain Aftab M.,
Hussain Muhammad M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced materials technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.184
H-Index - 42
ISSN - 2365-709X
DOI - 10.1002/admt.201700192
Subject(s) - thermopile , materials science , thermoelectric generator , thermoelectric effect , bismuth telluride , tube (container) , thermoelectric materials , optoelectronics , slab , composite material , engineering physics , mechanical engineering , optics , structural engineering , thermal conductivity , physics , infrared , thermodynamics , engineering
Abstract Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are interesting energy harvesters of otherwise wasted heat. Here, a polymer‐assisted generic process and its mechanics to obtain sputtered thermoelectric (TE) telluride material‐based 3D tubular structures with unprecedented length (up to seamless 4 cm and further expandable) are shown. This length allows for large temperature differences between the hot and the cold ends, a critical but untapped enabler for high power generation. Compared with a flat slab, better area efficiency is observed for a rolled tube and compared with a solid rod architecture, a rolled tube uses less material (thus making it lightweight and cost effective) and has competitive performance advantage due to a smaller contact area. It is also shown that a tubular architecture thermopile‐based TEG is able to generate up to 5 μW of power (eight pairs of p‐ and n‐type thermopiles) through a temperature difference of 60 °C. The demonstrated process can play an important role in transforming 2D atomic crystal structure TE materials into 3D tubular thermopiles for effective TEG application, which can maintain higher temperature differences by longer distances between hot and cold ends.