title: High-performance dispenser printed MA p-type Bi(0.5)Sb(1.5)Te(3) flexible thermoelectric generators for powering wireless sensor networks.
abstract: This work presents a novel method to synthesize p-type composite thermoelectric materials to print scalable thermoelectric generator (TEG) devices in a cost-effective way. A maximum ZT of 0.2 was achieved for mechanically alloyed (MA) p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 (8 wt % extra Te additive)-epoxy composite films cured at 250 °C. A 50% increase in Seebeck coefficient as a result of adding 8 wt % extra Te in stoichiometric Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 contributed to the increase in ZT. To demonstrate cost-effective and scalable manufacturing, we fabricated a sixty element thermoelectric generator prototype with 5.0 mm × 600 μm × 120 μm printed dimensions on a custom designed polyimide substrate with thick metal contacts. The prototype TEG device produced a power output of 20.5 μW at 0.15 mA and 130 mV for a temperature difference of 20 K resulting in a device areal power density of 152 μW/cm(2). This power is sufficient for low power applications such as wireless sensor network (WSN) devices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and ‡Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California , Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
authors.forename: Deepa
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Madan
authors.forename: Zuoqian
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Alic
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Paul K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Evans