3D-Printed Porous Thermoelectrics for In Situ Energy Harvesting

Abstract

The rapid growth of industrialization has resulted in an tremendous increase in energy demands. The vast amount of untapped waste heat found in factories and power plants can be harnessed to power devices. Thermoelectric materials enable a clean conversion of heat to electrical energy and vice versa, without the need for moving parts. However, existing thermoelectric generators are limited to capturing heat from exterior surfaces. Additive manufacturing offers itself as a cost-effective process that produces complex parts which can recover waste heat from direct heat flows. Herein, we report the first ever in situ energy harvester through porous 3D thermoelectrics. Complex 3D-printed Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5 Te 3 open cellular structures of high specific surface area are fabricated to allow a high rate of heat transfer throughout the heat pipes with negligible effect on the liquid flow. This work opens up exciting possibilities of energy harvesting from natural self-sustaining thermal gradients found in exhaust pipes and heat exchangers.

Weavable thermoelectrics: advances, controversies, and future developments

“…With the advancement of thermoelectric science and technology, the morphology of weavable thermoelectric materials has become diverse, and the research focus in this field continues to evolve. Generally, research focus areas in weavable thermoelectrics can be categorized as indicated by figure 2, including 1D fibers [42,43, and nanowires (NWs) [167,168], 2D thin films [169][170][171][172], 3D fabrics [173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186], device assembling [42,43,124], simulations [187,188], and integrations [189]. Among them, thermoelectric fibers with typical 1D macroscopic morphologies have garnered significant research attention.…”

Advances in flexible inorganic thermoelectrics

“…Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a technology that manufactures 3D products by adding materials layer by layer based on a designed 3D model using a 3D printer. 255,258,259 It combines cutting-edge technologies from various fields, such as digital modeling, mechatronics, information technology, materials science, and chemistry. 260 3D printing is a form of rapid prototyping technology that has been applied in product prototyping and mold manufacturing fields.…”

“…Traditional cutting processes often struggle to meet these requirements. Three‐dimensional (3D) printing is a technology that manufactures 3D products by adding materials layer by layer based on a designed 3D model using a 3D printer 255,258,259 . It combines cutting‐edge technologies from various fields, such as digital modeling, mechatronics, information technology, materials science, and chemistry 260 .…”

Suppressing Ag2Te nanoprecipitates for enhancing thermoelectric efficiency of AgSbTe2

“…[11][12][13][14][15] Furthermore, researchers have explored a range of strategies to effectively reduce lattice thermal conductivity, including the introduction of various types of defects, the manipulation of lattice anharmonicity, the utilization of complex structures, and the application of lattice strain. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] In recent years, several standout materials have risen to prominence as top performers in the field of thermoelectrics. Notable among these are compounds based on GeTe, SnSe, Cu 2 Se, Mg 3 Sb 2 , and AgSbTe 2 .…”