A Bi2Te3-Filled Nickel Foam Film with Exceptional Flexibility and Thermoelectric Performance

Taifeng Shi; Mengran Chen; Zhenguo Liu; Qingfeng Song; Yixiang Ou; Haoqi Wang; Jia Liang; Qihao Zhang; Zhendong Mao; Zhiwen Wang; Jingyvan Zheng; Qingchen Han; Kafil M Razeeb; Peng-An Zong

doi:10.3390/nano12101693

A Bi₂Te₃-Filled Nickel Foam Film with Exceptional Flexibility and Thermoelectric Performance

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 May 16;12(10):1693. doi: 10.3390/nano12101693.

Authors

Taifeng Shi¹, Mengran Chen¹, Zhenguo Liu², Qingfeng Song³, Yixiang Ou^{4

5}, Haoqi Wang⁵, Jia Liang⁶, Qihao Zhang⁷, Zhendong Mao¹, Zhiwen Wang¹, Jingyvan Zheng¹, Qingchen Han¹, Kafil M Razeeb⁸, Peng-An Zong^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China.
² Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo Institute of Northwestern Polytechnical University, Ningbo 315103, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of High-Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.
⁴ Radiation Technology Institute, Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, Beijing 100875, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Beam Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁷ Institute for Metallic Materials, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
⁸ Micro-Nano Systems Centre, Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Dyke Parade, Lee Maltings, T12 R5CP Cork, Ireland.

Abstract

The past decades have witnessed surging demand for wearable electronics, for which thermoelectrics (TEs) are considered a promising self-charging technology, as they are capable of converting skin heat into electricity directly. Bi₂Te₃ is the most-used TE material at room temperature, due to a high zT of ~1. However, it is different to integrate Bi₂Te₃ for wearable TEs owing to its intrinsic rigidity. Bi₂Te₃ could be flexible when made thin enough, but this implies a small electrical and thermal load, thus severely restricting the power output. Herein, we developed a Bi₂Te₃/nickel foam (NiFoam) composite film through solvothermal deposition of Bi₂Te₃ nanoplates into porous NiFoam. Due to the mesh structure and ductility of Ni Foam, the film, with a thickness of 160 μm, exhibited a high figure of merit for flexibility, 0.016, connoting higher output. Moreover, the film also revealed a high tensile strength of 12.7 ± 0.04 MPa and a maximum elongation rate of 28.8%. In addition, due to the film's high electrical conductivity and enhanced Seebeck coefficient, an outstanding power factor of 850 μW m^-1 K^-2 was achieved, which is among the highest ever reported. A module fabricated with five such n-type legs integrated electrically in series and thermally in parallel showed an output power of 22.8 nW at a temperature gap of 30 K. This work offered a cost-effective avenue for making highly flexible TE films for power supply of wearable electronics by intercalating TE nanoplates into porous and meshed-structure materials.

Keywords: Bi2Te3; TEG; flexible; nickel foam; solvothermal method; thermoelectric film.

Abstract

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