Capillary compression induced outstanding n-type thermoelectric power factor in CNT films towards intelligent temperature controller.

Wang, Hong; Li, Kuncai; Hao, Xin; Pan, Jiahao; Zhuang, Tiantian; Dai, Xu; Wang, Jing; Chen, Bin et al. · Nat Commun · 2024

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

One-dimensional carbon nanotubes are promising candidates for thermoelectrics because of their excellent electrical and mechanical properties. However, the large n-type power factor remains elusive in macroscopic carbon nanotubes films. Herein, we report an outstanding n-type power factor of 6.75 mW m<sup>-1</sup> K<sup>-2</sup> for macroscopic carbon nanotubes films with high electrical and thermal conductivity. A high-power density curl-able thermoelectric generator is fabricated with the obtained carbon nanotubes films, which exhibits a high normalized power output density of 2.75 W m<sup>-1</sup> at a temperature difference of 85 K. The value is higher than that of previously reported flexible all-inorganic thermoelectric generators (<0.3 W m<sup>-1</sup>). An intelligent temperature controller with automated temperature-controlling ability is fabricated by assembling these thermoelectric generators, which demonstrates the potential application of the carbon nanotubes films in automated thermal management of electronic devices where requires a large thermoelectric power factor and a large thermal conductivity simultaneously.