Open AccessAssembly Strategy and Performance Evaluation of Flexible Thermoelectric Devices
Author(s) -
Qu Dawei,
Li Xin,
Wang Hanfu,
Chen Guangming
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.388
H-Index - 100
ISSN - 2198-3844
DOI - 10.1002/advs.201900584
Subject(s) - stacking , folding (dsp implementation) , thermoelectric effect , fabrication , electronics , computer science , wearable technology , materials science , wearable computer , component (thermodynamics) , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , mechanical engineering , electrical engineering , embedded system , engineering , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , thermodynamics
Although organic and composite thermoelectric (TE) materials have witnessed explosive developments in the past five years, the research of flexible TE devices is rather limited. In particular, their assembly strategies and device performance reported in the literature cannot be directly compared, due to a variety of deviances including p‐ and n‐type component materials, shape and dimensions of p‐n flexible films, and applied temperature gradient (Δ T ). Here, three types of assembly strategies for flexible TE devices, that is, serial, folding, and stacking, are compared by fixing the corresponding experimental parameters. Furthermore, a convenient and general method to evaluate the flexible device performance (FDP) is put forward, that is, FDP = P max m Δ T N, where the maximum output power ( P max ) is divided by product mass ( m ), Δ T , and pair number of p‐n couples ( N ). The FDPs for the present serial, folding, and stacking devices are 11.13, 8.87, and 0.05 nW g −1 K −1 , respectively, confirming that the serial configuration is the best among the three strategies for flexible device fabrication. The preliminary evaluation method proposed herein will pave the way for a design strategy of flexible TE devices and speed up their applications in waste‐heat harvesting, e‐skin, wearable electronics, etc.