Nanoengineering Approach toward High Power Factor Ag<sub>2</sub>Se/Se Composite Films for Flexible Thermoelectric Generators
Ying Liu, Yating Li, Miaomiao Wu, Yiming Lu, Zixing Wang, Ping Wei, Wenyu Zhao, Kefeng Cai
Abstract
Herein, a flexible Ag 2 Se/Se composite film with a high power factor has been fabricated on a nylon membrane. The film has a high density and contains well-crystallized Ag 2 Se grains and embedded Se nanoinclusions, which exhibits not only excellent flexibility but also a comparably large room-temperature power factor and Seebeck coefficient of up to 2023 μW m –1 K –2 and −155 μV K –1, respectively. The high Seebeck coefficient is ascribed to the energy-filtering effect as caused by the Se/Ag 2 Se heterointerface. The assembled flexible thermoelectric generator (4-leg) exhibits a maximum output power of 1135 nW and a power density of up to 16.4 W m –2 when the applied temperature difference is 30 K. This work offers a feasible method to design high-performance and low-cost flexible thermoelectric generators used for wearable electronics.