Flexible thermoelectric generator fabricated by screen printing method from suspensions based on Bi₂Te_2.8Se_0.2 and Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃

Abstract

In this work, a method for the formation of legs of n- and p-type thermoelements by screen printing using zinc phosphate cement and aqueous alkaline sodium silicate solution as binders was developed. Thermoelectric properties of thick films were investigated. A prototype of a flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG) was developed and fabricated using the results obtained by the screen printing method from suspensions based on Bi₂Te₃-Sb₂Te₃ (p-type) and Bi₂Te₃-Bi₂Se₃ (n-type) with an aqueous alkaline sodium silicate solution as binder. The developed prototype includes 6 pairs of n- and p-type legs connected by copper wires, and a silicone matrix was used as a flexible base. The prototype showed that at room temperature (298 K) the output voltages of the flexible thick film TEG at temperature differences ΔT=2.5 and 10.0 K are 0.8 and 14.8 mV, respectively.

Keywords

thermoelectric devices / flexible thermoelectric generator / energy harvesting / thermoelectric materials / screen-printing / thermoelectric properties

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