Flexible and wearable plasmonic-enabled organic/inorganic hybrid photothermoelectric generators

Abstract

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Ag2Se/nylon self-supporting composite films for wearable photo-thermoelectric generators with high output characteristics

“…A photo-thermoelectric generator (PTEG) is a new model of an energy harvester proposed in recent years, which is based on TE materials and introduces the photothermal (PT) step, thus enabling the process of regenerating electrical energy from the heat generated by light. [40][41][42] A signicant advantage is that the traditional heat convection and conduction can not only be applied to generate electricity in a light-free environment just like ordinary TE materials, but it can also take advantage of the neglected thermal radiation from ambient light sources (such as sunlight) to create an effective temperature difference for TE devices to generate electricity. Depending on the location where the PT and TE effects occur, PTEGs are divided into heterogeneous asynchronous and homogeneous synchronous devices.…”

Wearable Photo‐Thermo‐Electrochemical Cells (PTECs) Harvesting Solar Energy

“…Solar energy is widely explored by photovoltaics in the ultraviolet to visible light range, while it is also an indirect thermal energy source in our living environment through the phototo-thermal conversion via photothermal (PT) effect. Based on PT and thermoelectric effect, photo-thermoelectric generator (PTEG) devices have been rapidly developed to convert solar energy to electricity in recent years [17][18][19][20] Common strategies to integrate PTEG into devices is to apply a layer of solar absorber on one end of the thermoelectric legs for planar TEG devices or on the top surface of commercial TEG devices. The layer of solar absorber usually consists of photothermal materials, including nanoscale plasmonic metal (like gold nanorods, [18] layered Ti/MgF 2 superlattice, [17] Cu nanoparticles grown on Zn foil [19] ), inorganic semiconductors (like MoS 2 [20] ), conducting polymers (such as polypyrrole [21] and polythiophene [22] ) and carbon-based materials (like carbon nanotubes, [23] reduced graphene oxide (rGO) [19] ).…”

“…Based on PT and thermoelectric effect, photo-thermoelectric generator (PTEG) devices have been rapidly developed to convert solar energy to electricity in recent years [17][18][19][20] Common strategies to integrate PTEG into devices is to apply a layer of solar absorber on one end of the thermoelectric legs for planar TEG devices or on the top surface of commercial TEG devices. The layer of solar absorber usually consists of photothermal materials, including nanoscale plasmonic metal (like gold nanorods, [18] layered Ti/MgF 2 superlattice, [17] Cu nanoparticles grown on Zn foil [19] ), inorganic semiconductors (like MoS 2 [20] ), conducting polymers (such as polypyrrole [21] and polythiophene [22] ) and carbon-based materials (like carbon nanotubes, [23] reduced graphene oxide (rGO) [19] ). To realize wearable applications, solar absorbers were also incorporated into rubber-like polymers to form composite films (e.g., graphene/ecoflex, [24] or MoS 2 /polyurethane [20] ).…”

“…Meanwhile, unconventional flexible thermoelectric materials including conducting polymers and carbon materials have been employed as thermoelectric legs due to the demand of flexibility in wearable applications. Examples of flexible TE materials are poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene (PEDOT:PSS)/Ag 2 Se, [18] Te/PEDOT, PPy wrapped carbon nantubes, [21] carbon nanotubes, [23] reduced graphene oxide [19] and so on. Due to the excellent solar absorbing and PT effect, the temperature difference between two electrodes of PTEGs can be boosted from 20 to 40 °C under solar illumination at room temperature.…”

Potential of Recycled Silicon and Silicon-Based Thermoelectrics for Power Generation

“…In addition, attention should be directed to applications that not only incur the most heat loss but also utilize a large amount of fuel to further amplify economic benefits from a more efficient energy conversion. One example would be commercial aircraft, which are consuming up to 95 billion gallons of diesel in 2019 (before the coronavirus pandemic) due to the booming aviation industry, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Furthermore, extra consideration should be taken for applications that utilize scarce material as energy sources, such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) powered by naturally occurring but limited radioactive oxides.…”