Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
State Key Laboratory for Terahertz and Millimeter Waves, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Nat Commun. 2023 Apr 12;14(1):2069. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37707-2.
For decades, the widespread application of thermoelectric generators has been plagued by two major limitations: heat stagnation in its legs, which limits power conversion efficiency, and inherent brittleness of its constituents, which accelerates thermoelectric generator failure. While notable progress has been made to overcome these quintessential flaws, the state-of-the-art suffers from an apparent mismatch between thermoelectric performance and mechanical toughness. Here, we demonstrate an approach to potentially enhance the power conversion efficiency while suppressing the brittle failure in thermoelectric materials. By harnessing the enhanced thermal impedance induced by the cellular architecture of microlattices with the exceptional strength and ductility (>50% compressive strain) derived from partial carbonization, we fabricate three-dimensional (3D) architected thermoelectric generators that exhibit a specific energy absorption of ~30 J g and power conversion efficiency of ~10%. We hope our work will improve future thermoelectric generator fabrication design through additive manufacturing with excellent thermoelectric properties and mechanical robustness.
数十年来，广泛应用的热电器件受到两大主要限制：器件腿中的热滞，这限制了能量转换效率；以及其组成部分的固有脆性，这加速了热电器件的失效。虽然在克服这些主要缺陷方面取得了显著进展，但最先进的技术在热电器件性能和机械韧性之间存在明显不匹配。在这里，我们展示了一种潜在的方法，可以在抑制热电器件脆性失效的同时提高能量转换效率。通过利用微晶格的多孔结构增强热阻抗，以及部分碳化带来的优异强度和延展性（>50%压缩应变），我们制造出具有 3D 多孔结构的热电器件，其比能量吸收约为 30 J/g，能量转换效率约为 10%。我们希望我们的工作能够通过具有优异热电器件性能和机械鲁棒性的增材制造来改进未来的热电器件制造设计。
