Engineering Commons^™

High-Performance And Flexible Thermoelectric Films By Screen Printing Solution-Processed Nanoplate Crystals, Tony Varghese, Courtney Hollar, Joseph Richardson, Nicholas Kempf, Chao Han, Pasindu Gamarachchi, David Estrada, Yanliang Zhang

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Screen printing allows for direct conversion of thermoelectric nanocrystals into flexible energy harvesters and coolers. However, obtaining flexible thermoelectric materials with high figure of merit ZT through printing is an exacting challenge due to the difficulties to synthesize high-performance thermoelectric inks and the poor density and electrical conductivity of the printed films. Here, we demonstrate high-performance flexible films and devices by screen printing bismuth telluride based nanocrystal inks synthesized using a microwave-stimulated wet-chemical method. Thermoelectric films of several tens of microns thickness were screen printed onto a flexible polyimide substrate followed by cold compaction and sintering. The n-type films demonstrate …