High-performance and compact-designed flexible thermoelectric modules enabled by a reticulate carbon nanotube architecture.
It is a great challenge to substantially improve the practical performance of flexible thermoelectric modules due to the absence of air-stable n-type thermoelectric materials with high-power factor. Here an excellent flexible n-type thermoelectric film is developed, which can be conveniently and rapidly prepared based on the as-grown carbon nanotube continuous networks with high conductivity. The optimum n-type film exhibits ultrahigh power factor of ∼1,500 μW m-1K-2and outstanding stability in air without encapsulation. Inspired by the findings, we design and successfully fabricate the compact-configuration flexible TE modules, which own great advantages compared with the conventional π-type configuration modules and well integrate the superior thermoelectric properties of p-type and n-type carbon nanotube films resulting in a markedly high performance. Moreover, the research results are highly scalable and also open opportunities for the large-scale production of flexible thermoelectric modules.
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.
Wenbin
W
Zhou
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.
Qingxia
Q
Fan
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.
Qiang
Q
Zhang
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.
Le
L
Cai
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.
Kewei
K
Li
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Xiaogang
X
Gu
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Feng
F
Yang
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.
Nan
N
Zhang
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Yanchun
Y
Wang
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Huaping
H
Liu
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Weiya
W
Zhou
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.|Beijing Key Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials and Structure Research, Beijing 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Sishen
S
Xie