Inkjet Printing Flexible Thermoelectric Devices Using Metal Chalcogenide Nanowires

Abstract

Development of flexible thermoelectric devices offers exciting opportunities for wearable applications in consumer electronics, healthcare, human–machine interface, etc. Despite the increased interests and efforts in nanotechnology‐enabled flexible thermoelectrics, translating the superior properties of thermoelectric materials from nanoscale to macroscale and reducing the manufacturing costs at the device level remain a major challenge. Here, an economic and scalable inkjet printing method is reported to fabricate high‐performance flexible thermoelectric devices. A general templated‐directed chemical transformation process is employed to synthesize several types of 1D metal chalcogenide nanowires (e.g., Ag2Te, Cu7Te4, and Bi2Te2.7Se0.3). These nanowires are made into inks suitable for inkjet printing by dispersing them in ethanol without any additives. As a showcase for thermoelectric applications, fully inkjet‐printed Ag2Te‐based flexible films and devices are prepared. The printed films exhibit a power factor of 493.8 µW m−1 K−2 at 400 K and the printed devices demonstrate a maximum power density of 0.9 µW cm−2 K−2, both of which are significantly higher than those reported in state‐of‐the‐art inkjet‐printed thermoelectrics. The protocols of metal chalcogenide ink formulations, as well as printing are general and extendable to a wider range of material systems, suggesting the great potential of this printing platform for scalable manufacturing of next‐generation, high‐performance flexible thermoelectric devices.

High-Performance MoS2/SWCNT Composite Films for a Flexible Thermoelectric Power Generator

“…The formula P th = V th 2 /(4 R i ) was used to compute the theoretical output power, where R i is the internal resistance of the TE device, which was about 51 Ω obtained by multimeter at room temperature. The difference between the calculated theoretical output value of 0.71 μW and the actual power is primarily due to contact resistance, temperature/resistance dependency, and measurement error. , …”

“…The difference between the calculated theoretical output value of 0.71 μW and the actual power is primarily due to contact resistance, temperature/resistance dependency, and measurement error. 65,66…”

Multiscale Transfer Printing via Shape Memory Polymer with High Adhesion and Modulus Switchability

“…Flexible electronics has been regarded as the forthcoming revolution within the electronics industry and has found extensive applications across diverse fields, such as photovoltaics, 1−3 flexible sensors, 4,5 electronic skin, 6−8 human− machine interfaces, 9,10 soft robotics, 11,12 emerging display, 13 and so on. 14,15 Recently, many fabrication approaches for flexible electronics have been reported, including screen printing, 16 inkjet printing, 17,18 and three-dimensional (3D) printing. 19,20,21,22 Screen printing is a printing technique that involves applying ink by exerting pressure to force it through a specially designed stencil using a squeegee.…”

Facile Fabrication of Carbon Nanocolloid‐Silver Composite Ink for the Application of All Inkjet‐Printed Wearable Electronics

“…Traditional manufacturing methods such as casting, molding, and forging for fabricating electronic devices are limited by the disadvantages of low precision, high price, strict reaction conditions, roughness, and timeconsuming. [24,25] Printing methods, as smart and flexible tools to fabricate nanomaterials-based devices, could provide more freedom and accuracy in controlling multiscale geometries. [26] Among different printing techniques, inkjet printing, which has been demonstrated with efficiency on multiple occasions, is one of the most extensively implemented techniques.…”