Capillary compression induced outstanding n-type thermoelectric power factor in CNT films towards intelligent temperature controller
Hong Wang, Kuncai Li, Xinmin Hao, Jiahao Pan, Tiantian Zhuang, Xu Dai, Jing Wang, Bin Chen, Daotong Chong
Abstract
Abstract One-dimensional carbon nanotubes are promising candidates for thermoelectrics because of their excellent electrical and mechanical properties. However, the large n-type power factor remains elusive in macroscopic carbon nanotubes films. Herein, we report an outstanding n-type power factor of 6.75 mW m −1 K −2 for macroscopic carbon nanotubes films with high electrical and thermal conductivity. A high-power density curl-able thermoelectric generator is fabricated with the obtained carbon nanotubes films, which exhibits a high normalized power output density of 2.75 W m −1 at a temperature difference of 85 K. The value is higher than that of previously reported flexible all-inorganic thermoelectric generators (<0.3 W m −1 ). An intelligent temperature controller with automated temperature-controlling ability is fabricated by assembling these thermoelectric generators, which demonstrates the potential application of the carbon nanotubes films in automated thermal management of electronic devices where requires a large thermoelectric power factor and a large thermal conductivity simultaneously.