Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Nat Commun. 2017 Mar 24;8:14886. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14886.
It is a great challenge to substantially improve the practical performance of flexible thermoelectric modules due to the absence of air-stable n-type thermoelectric materials with high-power factor. Here an excellent flexible n-type thermoelectric film is developed, which can be conveniently and rapidly prepared based on the as-grown carbon nanotube continuous networks with high conductivity. The optimum n-type film exhibits ultrahigh power factor of ∼1,500 μW m K and outstanding stability in air without encapsulation. Inspired by the findings, we design and successfully fabricate the compact-configuration flexible TE modules, which own great advantages compared with the conventional π-type configuration modules and well integrate the superior thermoelectric properties of p-type and n-type carbon nanotube films resulting in a markedly high performance. Moreover, the research results are highly scalable and also open opportunities for the large-scale production of flexible thermoelectric modules.
由于缺乏具有高功率因数的空气稳定的 n 型热电材料，大幅提高柔性热电模块的实际性能是一个巨大的挑战。在这里，开发了一种出色的柔性 n 型热电薄膜，可以基于具有高导电性的连续生长的碳纳米管网络方便、快速地制备。优化的 n 型薄膜表现出超高的功率因数（约 1500 μW·m-1·K-1），在不封装的情况下在空气中具有出色的稳定性。受此启发，我们设计并成功制造了紧凑型柔性 TE 模块，与传统的 π 型配置模块相比具有很大的优势，并很好地结合了 p 型和 n 型碳纳米管薄膜的优异热电性能，从而实现了显著的高性能。此外，研究结果具有高度的可扩展性，也为柔性热电模块的大规模生产开辟了机会。
