Printable thermoelectric devices for energy harvesting

This thesis describes the approaches of fabricating and testing thermoelectric generators (TEG) using screen printing. It includes the formation of the pastes, optimizing of the manufacture processes and the measurement of the thermoelectric properties. A nickel/copper based high temperature TEG was made to demonstrating the screen printing can be applied to fabricate thermoelectric materials. A bismuth/antimony based low temperature TEG was fabricated to identify the proper polymer binder for low temperature TEG application. A flexible bismuth tellurium/antimony tellurium low temperature TEG with 4 thermocouples was presented with a generated voltage of 23 mV and an output power of 194 nW when ΔT=20°C. Moreover, a dispenser printed structured TEG was also demonstrated for its ability to achieve 3D structured thermocouples with a thickness of 500 µm. The objective of this work involves developing screen printable thermoelectric material pastes and suitable processes; a proper approach to transfer the printed TEGs from rigid substrate onto flexible substrate (Kapton). The flexibility allows the printed TEGs to be applied on heat sources with curved surface, such as, human body. An additional research on the interface material of textile is also presented.