Open AccessFlexible thermoelectric films from electrodeposited Bi2Te3 on recycled carbon fibre-Modulation of Seebeck coefficient by electrode pre-treatment
Author(s) -
Priyanka Jagadish,
Phei Li Lau,
Erica Cheah Su Fern,
Lim Ca Tou,
Ng Shi Pei,
Yeoh Beng Soon,
Andy Chan,
Mohammad Khalid,
Davannendran Chandran
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/268/1/012161
Subject(s) - seebeck coefficient , thermoelectric effect , materials science , bismuth telluride , thermoelectric materials , scanning electron microscope , electrode , analytical chemistry (journal) , thermoelectric generator , annealing (glass) , composite material , chemistry , thermal conductivity , organic chemistry , physics , thermodynamics
Recycled carbon fibre (RCF) sheets were electrodeposited with bismuth telluride (Bi 2 Te 3 ), a state-of-art thermoelectric compound, to produce an n-type thermoelectric module which serves as a precursor to the development of a flexible thermoelectric module. The primary objective of this study is to determine the effects of electrode pre-treatment on the Seebeck coefficient and surface morphology of the RCF electrode. The RCF electrode pre-treatment methods include solvent cleaning via isopropanol, electrochemical polarization using phosphate buffer solution (PBS), and thermal annealing at 350°C with 5% hydrogen in argon gas. The main thermoelectric property, the Seebeck coefficient, which is a measure of the magnitude of an induced thermoelectric voltage due to the thermal gradient across the material, is reported. The surface morphologies and elemental composition of the post-electrodeposited carbon fibres were also studied and reported by Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX). Electrochemical polarization method yielded -13.38 μV/K in Seebeck coefficient compared to -12.23 μV/K of control sample. Solvent cleaned and heat treated samples have lower Seebeck coefficient values of -10.70 μV/K and -10.71 μV/K respectively compared to control sample. SEM images show promising surface properties improvement of the electrodeposited RCF which have been subjected to pre-treatment.