Fully Printed Organic-Inorganic Nanocomposites for Flexible Thermoelectric Applications

Canlin Ou; Abhijeet L Sangle; Anuja Datta; Qingshen Jing; Tommaso Busolo; Thomas Chalklen; Vijay Narayan; Sohini Kar-Narayan

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b01456

Fully Printed Organic-Inorganic Nanocomposites for Flexible Thermoelectric Applications

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Jun 13;10(23):19580-19587. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b01456. Epub 2018 Jun 4.

Authors

Canlin Ou¹, Abhijeet L Sangle¹, Anuja Datta¹, Qingshen Jing¹, Tommaso Busolo¹, Thomas Chalklen¹, Vijay Narayan², Sohini Kar-Narayan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy , University of Cambridge , 27 Charles Babbage Road , Cambridge CB3 0FS , U.K.
² Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratories , University of Cambridge , J. J. Thompson Avenue , Cambridge , CB3 0HE , U.K.

Abstract

Thermoelectric materials, capable of interconverting heat and electricity, are attractive for applications in thermal energy harvesting as a means to power wireless sensors, wearable devices, and portable electronics. However, traditional inorganic thermoelectric materials pose significant challenges due to high cost, toxicity, scarcity, and brittleness, particularly when it comes to applications requiring flexibility. Here, we investigate organic-inorganic nanocomposites that have been developed from bespoke inks which are printed via an aerosol jet printing method onto flexible substrates. For this purpose, a novel in situ aerosol mixing method has been developed to ensure uniform distribution of Bi₂Te₃/Sb₂Te₃ nanocrystals, fabricated by a scalable solvothermal synthesis method, within a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate matrix. The thermoelectric properties of the resulting printed nanocomposite structures have been evaluated as a function of composition, and the power factor was found to be maximum (∼30 μW/mK²) for a nominal loading fraction of 85 wt % Sb₂Te₃ nanoflakes. Importantly, the printed nanocomposites were found to be stable and robust upon repeated flexing to curvatures up to 300 m^-1, making these hybrid materials particularly suitable for flexible thermoelectric applications.

Keywords: aerosol jet printing; energy harvesting; poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate; solvothermal synthesis; thermoelectric nanocomposite.