Output Power Characterization of Flexible Thermoelectric Power Generators

摘要

To facilitate the reuse of environmental waste heat in our society,we have developed high-efficiency flexible thermoelectric powergenerators (TEPGs). In this study, we investigated the thermoelectromotiveforce (TEMF) and output power of a prototype device with 50 pairs of Π-type structures using a homemade measurement system for flexible TEPGsin order to evaluate their characteristics along the thickness direction. Theprototype device consisted of C fabrics (CAFs) used as p-type materials,NiCu fabrics (NCFs) used as n-type materials, and Ag fabrics (AGFs) usedas metal electrodes. Applying a temperature difference of 5 K, we obtaineda TEMF of 150 μV and maximum output power of 6.4 pW. The obtainedTEMF was smaller than that expected from the Seebeck coefficients of eachfabric, which is considered to be mainly because of the influence of contactthermal resistance at the semiconductor-fabric/AGF interfaces.