Innovative design of bismuth-telluride-based thermoelectric micro-generators with high output power - Archive ouverte HAL Access content directly
Journal Articles Energy & Environmental Science Year : 2020

Innovative design of bismuth-telluride-based thermoelectric micro-generators with high output power

Soufiane El Oualid
Anne Dauscher
Christophe Candolfi
Bertrand Lenoir

Abstract

The ever-increasing number of connected objects requires novel ways to power them and make them fully autonomous. In this context, photovoltaic, piezoelectric or thermoelectric energy-harvesting technologies show great promises as they make possible the conversion of solar radiation, motion or thermal energy into useful electricity for charging micro-batteries for instance. Thermoelectric micro-generators (µ-TEGs) exhibit several key benefits, making them prime candidates for harvesting any temperature difference between their two exchange surfaces. However, their output power critically depends on the design of the µ-TEG, the minimization of the detrimental influence of the contact resistances and on the coupling of the µ-TEG with the heat source and heat sink. Here, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate how these inherent difficulties can be mitigated using an innovative flexible µ-TEG design based on bismuth telluride thin films. Our experimental results show that an output power of 5.5 mW per thermocouple can be generated under a temperature difference of only 5 K, in excellent agreement with predictions based on three-dimensional finite element analyses. These remarkable results rank our µ-TEG among the best micro-generators currently available.
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Dates and versions

hal-03969536 , version 1 (05-02-2023)

Licence

Attribution - CC BY 4.0

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Soufiane El Oualid, Francis Kosior, Anne Dauscher, Christophe Candolfi, Gerhard Span, et al.. Innovative design of bismuth-telluride-based thermoelectric micro-generators with high output power. Energy & Environmental Science, 2020, 13 (10), pp.3579-3591. ⟨10.1039/d0ee02579h⟩. ⟨hal-03969536⟩
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