High Power Thermoelectric Generator Based on Vertical Silicon Nanowires.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32463681.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c00227 and PMC identifier 8007127.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Thermoelectric generators, which convert heat directly into electrical power, have great potentialities in the energy harvesting field. The exploitation of these potentialities is limited by the materials currently used, characterized by good thermoelectric properties, but also by several drawbacks. This work presents a silicon-based thermoelectric generator, made of a large collection of heavily <i>p</i>-doped silicon nanostructures. This macroscopic device (area of several mm<sup>2</sup>) collects together the good thermoelectric features of silicon, in terms of high power factor, and a very reduced thermal conductivity, which resulted in being exceptionally low (1.8 W/(m K), close to the amorphous limit). The generated electrical power density is remarkably high for a Si-based thermoelectric generator, and it is suitable for scavenging applications which can exploit small temperature differences. A full characterization of the device (Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, maximum power output) is reported and discussed.