High Thermoelectric Performance Related to PVDF Ferroelectric Domains in P-Type Flexible PVDF-Bi0.5 Sb1.5 Te3 Composite Film

Qinghui Jiang; Deng Pan; Yunfan Wang; Yong Liu; Yubo Luo; Junyou Yang; Baowen Li; Steve Dunn; Haixue Yan

doi:10.1002/smll.202306786

High Thermoelectric Performance Related to PVDF Ferroelectric Domains in P-Type Flexible PVDF-Bi_0.5 Sb_1.5 Te₃ Composite Film

Small. 2023 Dec 7:e2306786. doi: 10.1002/smll.202306786. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Qinghui Jiang¹, Deng Pan¹, Yunfan Wang², Yong Liu³, Yubo Luo¹, Junyou Yang¹, Baowen Li², Steve Dunn⁴, Haixue Yan⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die and Mould Technology, and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, P. R. China.
² State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Center of Smart Materials and Devices, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, P. R. China, 430070.
³ Foshan (Southern China) Institute for New Materials, Foshan, Guangdong, 528220, P. R. China.
⁴ School of Engineering, London South Bank University, 103 Borough Road, London, SE1 0AA, UK.
⁵ School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK.

PMID: 38061990
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202306786

Abstract

There is increasing demand to power Internet of Things devices using ambient energy sources. Flexible, low-temperature, organic/inorganic thermoelectric devices are a breakthrough next-generation approach to meet this challenge. However, these systems suffer from poor performance and expensive processing preventing wide application of the technology. In this study, by combining a ferroelectric polymer (Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF, β phase)) with p-type Bi_0.5 Sb_1.5 Te₃ (BST) a thermoelectric composite film with maximum is produced power factor. Energy filter from ferroelectric-thermoelectric junction also leads to high Seebeck voltage ≈242 µV K^-1 . For the first time, compelling evidence is provided that the dipole of a ferroelectric material is helping decouple electron transport related to carrier mobility and the Seebeck coefficient, to provide 5× or more improvement in thermoelectric power factor. The best composition, PVDF/BST film with BST 95 wt.% has a power factor of 712 µW•m^-1 K^-2 . A thermoelectric generator fabricated from a PVDF/BST film demonstrated P_max ^T 12.02 µW and P_density 40.8 W m^-2 under 50 K temperature difference. This development also provides a new insight into a physical technique, applicable to both flexible and non-flexible thermoelectrics, to obtain comprehensive thermoelectric performance.

Keywords: carrier mobility; ferroelectric; spark plasma; sustainable; tape casting.

Abstract

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