Design of Substrate Stretchability Using Origami-Like Folding Deformation for Flexible Thermoelectric Generator

Fukuie, Kana; Iwata, Yoshitaka; Iwase, Eiji

doi:10.3390/mi9070315

Cited by 32 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…To endow the TEGs of rigid cuboids with a certain stretchability level, Fukuie et al chose an origami-like PI substrate and assembled the TE cubes on it, thereby achieving 20% stretching deformation. [17] Lee et al proposed another method to soften the TEGs by using silver nanowires-based stretchable interconnects to connect paralleled cuboids to substitute traditional rigid copper electrodes, while the intermediate regions between cuboids were infiltrated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to hold the cuboids. [18] However, there exist detaching issues between soft PDMS and the rigid TE cuboids in a large bending or stretching situation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whole Fabric‐Assisted Thermoelectric Devices for Wearable Electronics

Yang

Wang

et al. 2021

Advanced Science

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Flexible thermoelectric generators (f-TEGs) have demonstrated great potential in wearable self-powered health monitoring devices. However, the existing wearable f-TEGs are neither flexible enough to bend and stretch while maintaining the device's integrity with a good TE performance nor directly compatible with clothes materials. Here, ultraflexible fabric-based thermoelectric generators (uf-TEGs) are proposed with conductive cloth electrodes and elastic fabric substrate. The patterned elastic fabric substrate fits the rigid cuboids well, together with serpentine structured cloth electrodes, rendering uf-TEG with excellent integrity and flexibility, thereby achieving a highly functional TE performance when strain reaches 30% or on arbitrarily shaped heat sources. The uf-TEGs show a large peak power of 64.10 𝝁W for a temperature difference of 33.24 K with a high voltage output of 111.49 mV, which is superior compared to previously reported fabric-based TEG devices, and it is still functional after the water immersion test. Besides the energy harvesting function, with both the temperature sensing ability and the touch perception, this uf-TEG is demonstrated as the electrical skin when mounted on a robot. Moreover, due to the wind-sensitive performance and self-power ability, the uf-TEGs are assembled on cloth as wearable health and motion monitoring devices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whole Fabric‐Assisted Thermoelectric Devices for Wearable Electronics

Yang

Wang

et al. 2021

Advanced Science

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“…Recently, the distribution of many sensors in various places in the environment has been proposed, and TEGs represent a potential power source for those sensors [3][4][5][6]. For example, there have been reports of bendable TEGs [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and stretchable TEGs [16,17] for IoT devices or wearable devices that attach to curved heat sources (such as piping, car bodies, and the human body). In particular, a stretchable TEG is needed so that it can be attached with low thermal contact resistance to curved heat sources and harvest energy from them [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, a stretchable TEG integrated with a fin for heat radiation has been necessitated. In previous studies, although the production of stretchable TEGs that used a folded substrate was reported, the folded substrate was not considered to be a heat radiation fin [17]. Therefore, we decided to develop a stretchable TEG with a high heat radiation performance that uses a folded substrate as a heat radiation fin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Origami Heat Radiation Fin for Use in a Stretchable Thermoelectric Generator

Akuto

Iwase

2020

Micromachines

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Recently, some studies have addressed the use of a folded substrate to realize stretchable electronic devices including stretchable thermoelectric generators (TEGs). However, the utilization of the folded substrate as a heat radiation fin has not been achieved. Herein, we have proposed the construction of a TEG with an origami-like folded structure substrate called an “origami-fin” that can achieve a high heat radiation performance and is also highly stretchable. The origami-fin increases the stretchability of the TEG by bending a non-stretchable material into a folded shape, and it also works as a heat radiator because of its large surface area compared to that of a flat structure. We evaluated the heat radiation performance of the origami-fin and the stability of the performance when it was stretched. The results demonstrate that the origami-fin works as a heat radiator and enhances the output of the TEG, while also exhibiting a high stretchability with only a slight output reduction.

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“…Many recent studies have focused on the development of thermoelectric generators [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Thermoelectric generators are used to convert waste heat into electrical power, which is a green energy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication and Characterization of Flexible Thermoelectric Generators Using Micromachining and Electroplating Techniques

et al. 2019

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This study involves the fabrication and measurement of a flexible thermoelectric generator (FTG) using micromachining and electroplating processes. The area of the FTG is 46 × 17 mm2, and it is composed of 39 thermocouples in series. The thermoelectric materials that are used for the FTG are copper and nickel. The fabrication process involves patterning a silver seed layer on the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrate using a computer numerical control (CNC) micro-milling machine. Thermoelectric materials, copper and nickel, are deposited on the PMMA substrate using an electroplating process. An epoxy polymer is then coated onto the PMMA substrate. Acetone solution is then used to etch the PMMA substrate and to transfer the thermocouples to the flexible epoxy film. The FTG generates an output voltage (OV) as the thermocouples have a temperature difference (ΔT) between the cold and hot parts. The experiments show that the OV of the FTG is 4.2 mV at ΔT of 5.3 K and the output power is 429 nW at ΔT of 5.3 K. The FTG has a voltage factor of 1 μV/mm2K and a power factor of 19.5 pW/mm2K2. The FTG reaches a curvature of 20 m−1.

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Design of Substrate Stretchability Using Origami-Like Folding Deformation for Flexible Thermoelectric Generator

Cited by 32 publications

References 19 publications

Whole Fabric‐Assisted Thermoelectric Devices for Wearable Electronics

Whole Fabric‐Assisted Thermoelectric Devices for Wearable Electronics

An Origami Heat Radiation Fin for Use in a Stretchable Thermoelectric Generator

Fabrication and Characterization of Flexible Thermoelectric Generators Using Micromachining and Electroplating Techniques

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