Toral Víctor, Gómez-Gijón Sonia, Romero Francisco J, Morales Diego P, Castillo Encarnación, Rodríguez Noel, Rojas Sara, Molina-Lopez Francisco, Rivadeneyra Almudena
Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Granada, Granada 18071, Spain.
Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Granada, Granada 18071, Spain.
ACS Appl Electron Mater. 2024 Jul 26;6(12):8640-8654. doi: 10.1021/acsaelm.4c00770. eCollection 2024 Dec 24.
In the evolution of pervasive electronics, it is imperative to significantly reduce the energy consumption of power systems and embrace sustainable materials and fabrication processes with minimal carbon footprint. Within this context, thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have garnered substantial attention in recent years because of the readily available thermal gradients in the environment, making them a promising energy-harvesting technology. Current commercial room-temperature thermoelectrics are based on scarce, expensive, and/or toxic V-VI chalcogenide materials, which limit their widespread use. Thermoelectric polymers partially address this issue, and as such, they have been intensively studied in the field in the past decade. However, less popular materials have recently appeared to respond to the challenges of room-temperature thermoelectrics in terms of sustainability and cost. In this contribution, we comprehensively review the latest advancements in emerging alternative materials with the potential to pave the way for the next generation of sustainable TEGs. This upcoming generation includes flexible and printed TEGs for applications like wearables or the Internet of Things.
在普及型电子产品的发展过程中，大幅降低电力系统的能耗并采用碳足迹最小的可持续材料和制造工艺势在必行。在此背景下，热oelectric发电机（TEGs）近年来受到了广泛关注，因为环境中存在易于获取的热梯度，这使其成为一种有前途的能量收集技术。目前的商业室温热电材料基于稀缺、昂贵和/或有毒的V-VI硫族化物材料，这限制了它们的广泛应用。热电聚合物部分解决了这个问题，因此，在过去十年中它们在该领域得到了深入研究。然而，最近出现了一些不太常见的材料，以应对室温热电材料在可持续性和成本方面的挑战。在本论文中，我们全面回顾了新兴替代材料的最新进展，这些材料有可能为下一代可持续TEGs铺平道路。这一即将出现的一代包括用于可穿戴设备或物联网等应用的柔性和印刷TEGs。
