Bendable n-Type Metallic Nanocomposites with Large Thermoelectric Power Factor

Yani Chen; Minhong He; Bin Liu; Guillermo C Bazan; Jun Zhou; Ziqi Liang

doi:10.1002/adma.201604752

Bendable n-Type Metallic Nanocomposites with Large Thermoelectric Power Factor

Adv Mater. 2017 Jan;29(4). doi: 10.1002/adma.201604752. Epub 2016 Nov 11.

Authors

Yani Chen¹, Minhong He¹, Bin Liu², Guillermo C Bazan³, Jun Zhou², Ziqi Liang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, P. R. China.
² Center for Phononics and Thermal Energy Science, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, P. R. China.
³ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry & Department of Materials Science, University of California at Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-9510, USA.

PMID: 27859788
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201604752

Abstract

Highly bendable n-type thermoelectric nanocomposites are successfully developed by embedding metallic Ni nanowires within an insulating poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) matrix in solution. These nanocomposites exhibit an abnormal decoupling of the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient as a function of Ni contents. A maximum power factor of 220 µW m^-1 K^-2 and ZT of 0.15 can thus be obtained with 80 wt% Ni at 380 K.

Keywords: electrical conductivity; flexible materials; nanocomposites; thermoelectric materials.