Flexible thermoelectrics: from silver chalcogenides to full-inorganic devices

Abstract

Flexible thermoelectrics is a synergy of flexible electronics and thermoelectric energy conversion. In this work, we fabricated flexible full-inorganic thermoelectric power generation modules based on doped silver chalcogenides.

Large-Area Laying of Soft Textile Power Generators for the Realization of Body Heat Harvesting Clothing

“…Although flexible TEGs can be manufactured through various processes [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], each of the aforementioned conventional technologies has limitations such as cost, toxicity, complicated processes, yield issues on products, and difficulty in integrating with actual clothing. Furthermore, the power of TEGs from the conventional processes is restricted by the small generator size.…”

Plastic Inorganic Semiconductors for Flexible Electronics

“…In addition, the relative resistance variation in the strip under different bending radius is also estimated. Plastic Inorganic Semiconductors for Flexible Electronics DOI: http://dx.doi.org /10.5772/intechopen.91195 Using Ag 2 S 0.5 Se 0.5 strips as n-type legs and Pt-Rh wires as p-type legs, fullinorganic thermoelectric devices were fabricated as shown in Figure 10 [22]. Under temperature difference 20 K, the maximum power of the device is 10 μW, and the normalized maximum power density P max L/A reaches 0.08 W·m −1 , which is much higher than those for current organic TE devices.…”

“…On the other hand, plastic deformation can prevent the sudden, catastrophic, brittle fracture, which is essential to not only structural materials but also functional materials. Hence, the discovery of the room-temperature plastic inorganic semiconductor Ag 2 S [21] and the fabrication of full-inorganic Ag 2 S-based thermoelectric (TE) power generation modules [22] are ground breaking, opening a new avenue toward next-generation flexible electronics.This chapter will provide an in-time overview for the newly discovered plastic/ flexible inorganic semiconductors. We shall first clarify the concept of flexibility and then illustrate the intrinsic plasticity for metals and brittleness for inorganic materials.…”

“…On the other hand, plastic deformation can prevent the sudden, catastrophic, brittle fracture, which is essential to not only structural materials but also functional materials. Hence, the discovery of the room-temperature plastic inorganic semiconductor Ag 2 S [21] and the fabrication of full-inorganic Ag 2 S-based thermoelectric (TE) power generation modules [22] are ground breaking, opening a new avenue toward next-generation flexible electronics.…”

“…( f) Relative electrical conductivity variation σ/σ 0 of the Ag 2 S 0.5 Se 0.5 foil after various number of times of bending cycles. Reproduced from Ref [22]. with permissions from The Royal Society of Chemistry.…”