Light-concentrated solar generator and sensor based on flexible thin-film thermoelectric device

Zhu, Wei; Deng, Yuan; Cao, Lili

doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.03.020

Cited by 75 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Flexible thermoelectric generators fabricated using thin-film technology might satisfy the aforementioned requirements [9][10][11]. To date, many thin-film thermoelectric devices have been fabricated using various film deposition methods such as flash evaporation [12][13][14], sputtering [15][16][17], and electrodeposition [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combination of Electrodeposition and Transfer Processes for Flexible Thin-Film Thermoelectric Generators

et al. 2018

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Abstract:To reduce consumption for ambient assisted living (AAL) applications, we propose the design and fabrication of flexible thin-film thermoelectric generators at a low manufacturing cost. The generators were fabricated using a combination of electrodeposition and transfer processes. N-type Bi 2 Te 3 films and p-type Sb 2 Te 3 films were formed on a stainless-steel substrate employing potentiostatic electrodeposition using a nitric acid-based bath, followed by a transfer process. Three types of flexible thin-film thermoelectric generators were fabricated. The open circuit voltage (V oc ) and maximum output power (P max ) were measured by applying a temperature difference between the ends of the generator. The thin-film generators obtained using thermoplastic sheets with epoxy resin exhibited a V oc that was tens of millivolts. In particular, the contact resistance of the thin-film generator decreased when silver paste was inserted at the junctions between the n-and p-type films. The most flexible thin-film generator fabricated in this study exhibited a P max of 10.4 nW at a temperature difference of 60 K. The current performance of the generators was too low, but we innovated a combination process to prepare them. It is expected to increase the performance by further decreasing the micro-cracks and contact resistance in the generators.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combination of Electrodeposition and Transfer Processes for Flexible Thin-Film Thermoelectric Generators

et al. 2018

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“…The heat storage unit contains water as the phase change material (PCM) to maintain a temperature difference along the thermoelectric generator. The thermoelectric system successfully operates the wireless sensor unit with a power consumption of 189 μW under the converted output voltage of 3.3 V. Zhu et al [55] demonstrate the thin-film based thermoelectric device integrated with solar energy source, as in figure 1(b). To enhance the concentration of illumination intensities on hot side of thermoelectric device, a Fresnel lens was incorporated into the system.…”

Section: Sustainable Energy Harvesting For Iot Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(a) Wireless sensor system powered by aircraft specific thermoelectric energy harvesting[54]. (b) Schematic of the thin-film thermoelectric device integrated with an optical concentrator[55]. (a) Reprinted from[54], Copyright 2011, with permission from Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.…”

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Energy harvesting using thermoelectricity for IoT (Internet of Things) and E-skin sensors

et al. 2019

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With the increasing demand for Internet of Things (IoT) with integrated wireless sensor networks (WSNs), sustainable power supply and management have become important issues to be addressed. Thermal energy in forms of waste heat or metabolic heat is a promising source for reliably supplying power to electronic devices; for instance, thermoelectric power generators are widely being researched as they are able to convert thermal energy into electricity. This paper specifically looks over the application of thermoelectricity as a sustainable power source for IoT including WSNs. Also, we discuss a few thermoelectric systems capable of operating electronic skin (e-skin) sensors despite their low output power from body heat. For a more accurate analysis on body heat harvesting, models of the human thermoregulatory system have been investigated. In addition, some clever designs of heat sinks that can be integrated with thermoelectric systems have also been introduced. For their power management, the integration with a DC-DC converter is addressed to boost its low output voltage to a more usable level.

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“…However, there are several publications of various designs of the thin-film thermoelectric modules with the heat transfer in the plane of the TE film utilizing planar substrates [13,14,15,16,17,18,19], corrugated structures [20,21,22,23,24,25] or different solid supporting architectures [26,27] with some interesting approaches for flexibility and cost reduction [28,29,30,31]. They all, except some of the organic or hybrid devices [13,25,31], are designed to consist of two different TE materials to form the basic unit (TE couple) of the thermoelectric module.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A numerical study on the design trade-offs of a thin-film thermoelectric generator for large-area applications

Tappura

2018

Renewable Energy

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Thin-film thermoelectric generators with a novel folding scheme are proposed for large-area, low energydensity applications. Both the electrical current and heat transfer are in the plane of the thermoelectric thinfilm, yet the heat transfer is across the plane of the modulesimilar to conventional bulk thermoelectric modules. With such designs, the heat leakage through the module itself can be minimized and the available temperature gradient maximized. Different from the previously reported corrugated thermoelectric generators, the proposed folding scheme enables high packing densities without compromising the thermal contact area to the heat source and sink. The significance of various thermal transport, or leakage, mechanisms in relation to power production is demonstrated for different packing densities and thicknesses of the module under heat sink-limited conditions. It is shown that the power factor is more important than ZT for predicting the power output of such thin-film devices. As very thin thermoelectric films are employed with modest temperature gradients, high aspect-ratio elements are needed to meet theusually ignoredrequirements of practical applications for the current. With the design trade-offs considered, the proposed devices may enable the exploitation of thermoelectric energy harvesting in newlarge-areaapplications at reasonable cost. KEYWORDS: thermoelectric generator; large-area TEG; thin-film, in-plane heat transfer; FEM simulations; computational TEG design © 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Renewable Energy. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.

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Light-concentrated solar generator and sensor based on flexible thin-film thermoelectric device

Cited by 75 publications

References 26 publications

Combination of Electrodeposition and Transfer Processes for Flexible Thin-Film Thermoelectric Generators

Combination of Electrodeposition and Transfer Processes for Flexible Thin-Film Thermoelectric Generators

Energy harvesting using thermoelectricity for IoT (Internet of Things) and E-skin sensors

A numerical study on the design trade-offs of a thin-film thermoelectric generator for large-area applications

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