Institute for Microelectronics and Microsensors, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4040 Linz, Austria.
Sensors (Basel). 2019 Jan 19;19(2):403. doi: 10.3390/s19020403.
Thermocouples classically consist of two metals or semiconductor components that are joined at one end, where temperature is measured. Carbon black is a low-cost semiconductor with a Seebeck coefficient that depends on the structure of the carbon particles. Different carbon black screen-printing inks generally exhibit different Seebeck coefficients, and two can therefore be combined to realize a thermocouple. In this work, we used a set of four different commercially available carbon-black screen-printing inks to print all-carbon-black thermocouples. The outputs of these thermocouples were characterized and their Seebeck coefficients determined. We found that the outputs of pure carbon-black thermocouples are reasonably stable, linear, and quantitatively comparable to those of commercially available R- or S-type thermocouples. It is thus possible to fabricate thermocouples by an easily scalable, cost-efficient process that combines two low-cost materials.
热电偶通常由两种金属或半导体组件组成，它们在测量温度的一端连接在一起。炭黑是一种低成本的半导体，其塞贝克系数取决于碳颗粒的结构。不同的炭黑丝网印刷油墨通常表现出不同的塞贝克系数，因此可以将两种油墨结合起来实现热电偶。在这项工作中，我们使用了一组四种不同的市售炭黑丝网印刷油墨来打印全炭黑热电偶。对这些热电偶的输出进行了表征，并确定了它们的塞贝克系数。我们发现，纯炭黑热电偶的输出相当稳定、线性，并且在数量上可与市售的 R 或 S 型热电偶相媲美。因此，通过一种易于扩展的、具有成本效益的工艺，结合两种低成本材料制造热电偶是可行的。
