Construction and Characterization of Graphene-Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanocomposite as Thermoelement With High ZT Factor

In this work, we designed and fabricated a thermoelement using nano-graphene composite, and its thermoelectric property was enhanced with higher ZT factor. A graphene composite material monolith was synthesized using solid state fabrication techniques and this was characterized for various thermophysical properties. A maximum ZT factor of 4.3 was achieved with 40 wt% graphene-PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) nanocomposite, which is higher than conventional vapor compression thermoelements. This would pave the way for more efficient Peltier devices and thermoelectric refrigerators.