A comprehensive review of Thermoelectric Generators: Technologies and common applications

Abstract Power costs increasing, environmental pollution and global warming are issues that we are dealing with in the present time. To reduce their effects, scientists are focusing on improving energy harvesting-based power generators. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) have demonstrated their ability to directly convert thermal energy into an electrical one via the Seebeck effect. Also, they are environmentally friendly because they do not contain chemical products, they operate silently because they do not have mechanical structures and/or moving parts, and they can be fabricated on many types of substrates like silicon, polymers, and ceramics. Furthermore, TEGs are position-independent, present a long operating lifetime and are suitable for integration into bulk and flexible devices. This paper presents in-depth analysis of TEGs, starting by an extensive description of their working principle, types (planar, vertical and mixed), used materials, figure of merit, improvement techniques including different thermoelectric materials arrangement (conventional, segmented and cascaded), and used technologies and substrates types (silicon, ceramics and polymers). This manuscript also describes the exploitation of TEGs in various fields starting from low-power applications (medical and wearable devices, IoT: internet of things, and WSN: wireless sensor network) to high-power applications (industrial electronics, automotive engines, and aerospace).