In this work, a rope of single-walled carbon nanotubes is prepared by using a diamond wire drawing die. At atmospheric condition, the electrical conductance and the thermoelectric voltage of single-walled carbon nanotubes rope have been investigated with the hot-side temperature ranging from 292 to 380 K, and cold-side temperature at 292 K. For different temperatures in the range of 292 to 380 K at hot-side, the current-voltage curves are almost parallel to each other, indicating that the electrical conductance does not change. The dynamic characteristics of voltage at positive, zero and negative current bias demonstrate that a thermoelectric voltage is induced with a direction from hot- to cold-side. The induced thermoelectric voltage shows linear dependence on the temperature difference between hot- and cold-side. The thermoelectric power of single-walled carbon nanotubes rope is found to be positive and has a value about 17.8 +/- 1.0 microV/K. This result suggests the hole-like carriers in single-walled carbon nanotubes rope. This study will pave the way for single-walled carbon nanotubes based thermoelectric devices.
A novel type of thermoelectric generator device (TEGD) based on carbon nanotube (CNT) membrane is introduced to realize the self-powered function of nano/micro electromechanical systems (N/MEMS) in some special environments. The TEGD unit is composed of an n-type CNT membrane and a p-type one connected in series. When temperature gradient exists between both ends of the TEGD unit, electric potential difference will generate. The TEGD is formed through connecting several TEGD units in series to get enough electric power. In the paper, CNT membranes of the TEGD are synthesized by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and the TEGD properties are researched in detail. Experimental results demonstrated that the TEGD has much use value and bright application prospect in the future.
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