Physics-guided co-designing flexible thermoelectrics with techno-economic sustainability for low-grade heat harvesting.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36638175.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adf5701 and PMC identifier 9839327.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
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Abstract
Flexible thermoelectric harvesting of omnipresent spatial thermodynamic energy, though promising in low-grade waste heat recovery (<100°C), is still far from industrialization because of its unequivocal cost-ineffectiveness caused by low thermoelectric efficiency and power-cost coupled device topology. Here, we demonstrate unconventional upcycling of low-grade heat via physics-guided rationalized flexible thermoelectrics, without increasing total heat input or tailoring material properties, into electricity with a power-cost ratio (W/US$) enhancement of 25.3% compared to conventional counterparts. The reduced material usage (44%) contributes to device power-cost "decoupling," leading to geometry-dependent optimal electrical matching for output maximization. This offers an energy consumption reduction (19.3%), electricity savings (0.24 kWh W<sup>-1</sup>), and CO<sub>2</sub> emission reduction (0.17 kg W<sup>-1</sup>) for large-scale industrial production, fundamentally reshaping the R&D route of flexible thermoelectrics for techno-economic sustainable heat harvesting. Our findings highlight a facile yet cost-effective strategy not only for low-grade heat harvesting but also for electronic co-design in heat management/recovery frontiers.