Electrode interface optimization advances conversion efficiency and stability of thermoelectric devices

Chu, Jun; Huang, Jian; Liu, Ruiheng; Liao, Jincheng; Xia, Xugui; Zhang, Qihao; Wang, Chao; Gu, Meng; Bai, Shengqiang; Shi, Xun; Chen, Lidong

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16508-x

Cited by 133 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…that are comparable to state-of-the-art values for non-segmented skutterudite legs, [14,15,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] the measured output power density , varying from 3.4 up to 7.6 W cm -2 for applied ∆ between 450 and 630 K, are the highest achieved so far for skutterudite-based TEGs.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Thermoelectric materials have the ability to directly and reversibly convert a thermal gradient into electrical energy, offering an elegant and versatile way to recover energy from any heat source. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Thermoelectric generators (TEGs), consisting of n-and p-type legs composed of doped semiconductors, have been mostly used as reliable power supplies for rovers and deepspace probes. [10,11] Despite being an attractive solid-state technology primarily due to its high reliability and absence of greenhouse gas emissions, the limited use of TEGs in terrestrial applications is tied to their output performances, still surpassed by other green energyconversion technologies such as solar cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High Power Density Thermoelectric Generators with Skutterudites

Oualid

Kogut

Benyahia

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

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Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) offer a versatile solution to convert low‐grade heat into useful electrical power. While reducing the length of the active thermoelectric legs provides an efficient strategy to increase the maximum output power density pmax, both the high electrical contact resistances and thermomechanical stresses are two central issues that have so far prevented a strong reduction in the volume of thermoelectric materials integrated. Here, it is demonstrated that these barriers can be lifted by using a nonconventional architecture of the legs which involves inserting thick metallic layers. Using skutterudites as a proof‐of‐principle, several single‐couple and multi‐couple TEGs with skutterudite layers of only 1 mm are fabricated, yielding record pmax ranging from 3.4 up to 7.6 W cm−2 under temperature differences varying between 450 and 630 K. The highest pmax achieved corresponds to a 60‐fold increase per unit volume of skutterudites compared to 1 cm long legs. This work establishes thick metallic layers as a robust strategy through which high power density TEGs may be developed.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Power Density Thermoelectric Generators with Skutterudites

Oualid

Kogut

Benyahia

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

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“…High thermal conductivity materials such as diamond and silicon are investigated in the area of thermal management of electronics. Low thermal conductivity materials like Zintl phases [ 2 , 3 ], skutterudites [ 4 , 5 ], half-Heuslers [ 6 , 7 ], and materials with chemical bond hierarchy [ 8 – 10 ] are widely used in high-performance thermoelectric energy conversion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Violation of the T ⁻¹ Relationship in the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Mg ₃ Sb ₂ with Locally Asymmetric Vibrations

et al. 2020

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Most crystalline materials follow the guidelines of T−1 temperature-dependent lattice thermal conductivity (κL) at elevated temperatures. Here, we observe a weak temperature dependence of κL in Mg3Sb2, T−0.48 from theory and T−0.57 from measurements, based on a comprehensive study combining ab initio molecular dynamics calculations and experimental measurements on single crystal Mg3Sb2. These results can be understood in terms of the so-called “phonon renormalization” effects due to the strong temperature dependence of the interatomic force constants (IFCs). The increasing temperature leads to the frequency upshifting for those low-frequency phonons dominating heat transport, and more importantly, the phonon-phonon interactions are weakened. In-depth analysis reveals that the phenomenon is closely related to the temperature-induced asymmetric movements of Mg atoms within MgSb4 tetrahedron. With increasing temperature, these Mg atoms tend to locate at the areas with relatively low force in the force profile, leading to reduced effective 3rd-order IFCs. The locally asymmetrical atomic movements at elevated temperatures can be further treated as an indicator of temperature-induced variations of IFCs and thus relatively strong phonon renormalization. The present work sheds light on the fundamental origins of anomalous temperature dependence of κL in thermoelectrics.

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“…The data are taken from refs. [7,12,50,52,59,62,64,68,70,76,77,83,[91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108] devices. The thermoelectric materials used in the flexible thermoelectric devices are usually prepared by deposition or printing methods.…”

Section: Summary and Outlooksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Developments in Flexible Thermoelectric Devices

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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Wearables is a category of electronic devices that can be worn as accessories, embedded in clothing, implanted in the user's body, or even tattooed on the skin. The past decade has witnessed rapid development of wearables in medicine, healthcare, military, and other fields. As predicted by global technology research firm CCS Insight, the market of wearables will reach almost $30 billion and the sales will reach 260 million units in 2023. [1] The rapid development of wearables is originated from the great successes achieved in materials, electronics, and other related techniques. Inversely, it also proposes more requirements to them. One typical example is the battery for the wearables. The appearance of portable chemical battery, especially the ultrathin large capacity lithium battery, makes the service of wearables possible. Inversely, the rapid development of wearables requires the batteries have better flexibility, smaller volume, larger capacity, and longer lifetime. [2] Among them, the longer lifetime of battery is one of the most important issues because the frequently charging process greatly limits the long-term service of wearables, which is particularly critical for the applications in medicine and military fields.Beyond the traditional chemistry battery, self-powered technology is attracting increasing attention in both academic and industry fields because it can provide uninterruptable power supply to wearables. [3] The most promising self-powered technology is thermoelectric technique, which can directly generate power by using the temperature difference between human body and environment based on the Seebeck effect. [4] It has the advantages of silent, reliable, and without moving parts. As early as 1960s, thermoelectric technique has been already used to power the deep space satellite to perform long-term exploration in deep space. Since the last decade of 20th century, due to the energy crisis and aggravated greenhouse gas emissions, the applications of thermoelectric technique were extended to the fields of waste heat harvesting. [5] In these applications, the heat sources usually have large area and thus the rigid thermoelectric materials and planar devices can satisfy the requirements. However, in wearables, the thermoelectric devices should be flexible to well fit the curved surface of human skin and survive under frequently bending process. This makes the development of flexible thermoelectric devices a very challenging task. Currently, flexible thermoelectrics, including flexible thermoelectric materials and devices, has already become a hot topic in thermoelectric community. The number of published academic studies included in Web of Science Database (WOS) relevant to the keywords "flexible thermoelectric material" and "flexible thermoelectric device" is continuously increasing, from 18 in 2010 to 205 in 2019.Flexible organic thermoelectric materials are natural candidates for flexible thermoelectric devices due to their intrinsic flexibility. [6] Likewise, via the help of flexible substrat...

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Electrode interface optimization advances conversion efficiency and stability of thermoelectric devices

Cited by 133 publications

References 46 publications

High Power Density Thermoelectric Generators with Skutterudites

High Power Density Thermoelectric Generators with Skutterudites

Violation of the T ⁻¹ Relationship in the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Mg ₃ Sb ₂ with Locally Asymmetric Vibrations

Recent Developments in Flexible Thermoelectric Devices

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Electrode interface optimization advances conversion efficiency and stability of thermoelectric devices

Cited by 133 publications

References 46 publications

High Power Density Thermoelectric Generators with Skutterudites

High Power Density Thermoelectric Generators with Skutterudites

Violation of the T −1 Relationship in the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Mg 3 Sb 2 with Locally Asymmetric Vibrations

Recent Developments in Flexible Thermoelectric Devices

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Violation of the T ⁻¹ Relationship in the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Mg ₃ Sb ₂ with Locally Asymmetric Vibrations