Speaker
Description
Thermoelectric (TE) materials are called to play a crucial role providing solutions for future sustainable society. One of the most promising applications for the TE technologies is ambient energy harvesting for wireless applications in the booming field of Internet of Things (IoT). Miniaturised IoT sensor nodes need environmentally friendly power sources delivering powers in the range of 0.1 to 100mW that are able to replace primary batteries and their associated economic and environmental issues. Due to the ubiquitous presence of heat sources, TE modules are candidates to provide an ultimate solution for unwired power with lower installation and maintenance cost. However, this ultimate solution is only possible if a radically new generation of highly performing cost-effective and eco-friendly TE materials are developed in the next future. The major limitations are the toxicity and high cost of the used TE materials, and the use of large amounts of these materials in the form of thick pellets which cannot be adapted to curved sur-faces. Here a new technology is presented that enables the transfer to the macroscale of performance improvements due to nanostructuring. The new family of nano-enabled materials consists on large-area paper-like fabrics made of Si-based nanotubes.
The potentiality of the nanostructured fabrics as thermoelectric generator is demonstrated in a wide range of temperatures, from close to room temperature to 700 °C. Delivered power densities range from 10 µW·cm-2, at 40 ºC (appropriate for wearable application range), to 10 mW/cm2 at 700 ºC. Not strictly restricting to power generation capabilities, other interesting applications are presented, showing a straightforward implementation of the material as self-powered catalytic hydrogen sensor.
| Speaker Country | Spain |
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