Recent development and application of thin-film thermoelectric cooler

Thermoelectric Coolers: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…[ 12,83,84,134–138 ] The recently reported SnSe crystal with a room‐temperature ZT of 1.25 is also attractive. [ 102 ] In terms of the 2D TE materials that target to be employed in flexible TECs, [ 19 ] n‐type Bi 2 Te 3 ‐based thin film was reported to have a peak ZT of >1.6 at 300 K, [ 139,140 ] and n‐type Ag 2 Se thin film exhibits a high ZT of 1.2 at 300 K. [ 141 ] Correspondingly, p‐type BST, Sb 2 Te 3 , and SrTiO 3 thin films show high ZT s of >1.5 at 300 K. [ 142–144 ] Meanwhile, thin‐film‐based superlattices such as Bi 2 Te 3 /Sb 2 Te 3 and PbSnSeTe/PbTe were reported to have high room‐temperature ZT s of >2, [ 12,145 ] indicating the full potential for applying to miniature TECs. Besides, 1D TE materials such as BST ( ZT = 1.25) [ 22 ] and SnSe ( ZT = 2) [ 146 ] fibers are also promising for applying to wearable TECs.…”

“…With the rapid development of physics, chemical, materials science, and technology, both TE materials and TECs have exhibited significant progress. [ 6,9 ] In addition to conventional bulk materials, [ 1 ] many new‐type TE materials such as superlattices, [ 10–15 ] 2D thin/thick solid films, [ 16–20 ] 1D nano/microfibers, [ 21,22 ] and organic conducting polymers(CPs), [ 23,24 ] have been developed and applied to TECs. TECs have been applied to much wider scenarios including space cooling, [ 25–27 ] wearable/portable cooler for personal thermal management, [ 22,28–33 ] processors and on‐chip cooling, [ 11,34–41 ] light‐emitting diodes (LEDs), [ 42–46 ] batteries and battery pack, [ 47–51 ] solid/portable refrigerators, [ 52–55 ] fresh water generators, [ 56,57 ] medical and biological applications, [ 58–60 ] and solar‐panel‐related cooling systems of the building, [ 61–74 ] as displayed in Figure 1.…”

“…[ 80 ] Therefore, it is of significance to design high‐performance TE materials with high ZT s, especially at near‐room temperatures since most of TECs functionalize at near‐room temperatures. [ 19,51,65,77,81,82 ] Figure 2b compares reported peak ZT s of bulk TE materials reported in recent years, including Bi 2 Te 3 , [ 83 ] Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5 Te 3 (BST), [ 84 ] SnTe, [ 85 ] Mg 3 Sb 2 Zintl, [ 86 ] Cu 2 Se composites, [ 87 ] GeTe, [ 88 ] half‐Heusler, [ 89 ] PbTe, [ 90 ] skutterudite, [ 91 ] SnSe, [ 92 ] BiCuSeO, [ 93 ] and SrTiO 3 . [ 94 ] Other TE materials such as Mg 2 Si ( ZT = 1.4 at 800 K), [ 95 ] Cu 2 S 1‐ x Te x ( ZT = 2.1 at 1000 K), [ 96 ] AgSbTe 2 ( ZT = 2.1 at 573 K), [ 97 ] and clathrate ( ZT = 1.45 at 500 K), [ 98 ] and also shows their high TE potentials.…”

Excellent Thermoelectric Performance from In Situ Reaction between Co Nanoparticles and BiSbTe Flexible Films

“…The integration development of microelectronic devices inevitably leads to increasing density of heat flux, significantly compromising the performance and service life if efficient thermal management is not available . On the other hand, the rapid growth of wearable electronics poses a great challenge in planar and flexible heat dissipation techniques. , Among various cooling approaches, Peltier cooling based on thermoelectric (TE) films has a unique advantage in the in-plane heat dissipation application because of no moving parts, high reliability, fast response, and simple operation. − However, the poor performance of TE films is far less than that of bulk TE materials, which severely limits the applications of TE films.…”

“…Inorganic TE films possess good TE properties but poor flexibility . Organic TE films have intrinsically low performance though excellent flexibility .…”