title: Optical and thermal response of single-walled carbon nanotube-copper sulfide nanoparticle hybrid nanomaterials.
abstract: This paper reports the optical and thermal response of a single-walled carbon nanotube-copper sulfide nanoparticle (SWNT-CuS NP) hybrid nanomaterial and its application as a thermoelectric generator. The hybrid nanomaterial was synthesized using oleylamine molecules as the linker molecules between SWNTs and CuS NPs. Measurements found that the hybrid nanomaterial has significantly increased light absorption (up to 80%) compared to the pure SWNT. Measurements also found that the hybrid nanomaterial thin-film devices exhibit a clear optical and thermal switching effect, which can be further enhanced up to 10 ×  by asymmetric illumination of light and thermal radiation on the thin-film devices instead of symmetric illumination. A simple prototype thermoelectric generator enabled by the hybrid nanomaterials is demonstrated, indicating a new route for achieving thermoelectricity.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Micromanufacturing, Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Yi-Hsuan
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Santana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lakshmanan
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Que