Design and fabrication of 3D flexible thermoelectric energy generator using chemical vapor deposition method based on paper substrate

摘要

This paper reports a design and fabrication of 3D flexible thermoelectric energy generator (TEG) using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on paper substrate. Eight thermocouples copper cylinders and nickel cylinders in series were separately coated onto paper substrate using CVD technology. When a temperature gradient was established between the copper and nickel junctions, more free electrons would be generated according to thermoelectric properties of p-type and n-type based on Seebeck effect. The measurement results showed that the output voltage of the flexible TEG 4 cm × 4 cm device reach up to ~1 mV voltage with applied temperature 100 0C. Moreover, the results feasibility provides an experimental prototype using CVD for flexible TEGs on paper substrate. These flexible TEGs not only have potential abilities for harvesting energy from waste heat emitted environment, but also own the property of a low weight, low cost and facile fabrication.