Stretchable Nanolayered Thermoelectric Energy Harvester on Complex and Dynamic Surfaces
Yang Yang, Hongjie Hu, Zeyu Chen, Ziyu Wang, Laiming Jiang, Gengxi Lu, Xiangjia Li, Ruimin Chen, Jie Jin, Haochen Kang, Hengxi Chen, Shuang Lin, Siqi Xiao, Hanyu Zhao, Rui Xiong, Jing Shi, Qifa Zhou, Sheng Xu, Yong Chen
Abstract
Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) provide a unique solution for energy harvesting from waste heat, presenting a potential solution for green energy. However, traditional rigid and flexible TEGs cannot work on complex and dynamic surfaces. Here, we report a stretchable TEG (S-TEG) (over 50% stretchability of the entire device) that is geometrically suitable for various complex and dynamic surfaces of heat sources. The S-TEG consists of hot-pressed nanolayered p-(Sb2Te3) and n-(Bi2Te3)-type thermoelectric couple arrays and exploits the wavy serpentine interconnects to integrate all units. The internal resistance of a 10 × 10 array is 22 ohm, and the output power is ∼0.15 mW/cm2 at ΔT = 19 K on both developable and nondevelopable surfaces, which are much improved compared with those of existing S-TEGs. The energy harvesting of S-TEG from the dynamic surfaces of the human skin offers a potential energy solution for the wearable devices for health monitoring.