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Scalable and environmentally friendly MXene-tetrahedrites for next-generation flexible thermoelectrics
Traditional thermoelectric generators (TEGs) face scalability challenges due to high-temperature, long-duration curing processes and rare-earth/toxic chalcogenides such as bismuth telluride. Additive manufacturing has been investigated as a more time-, energy- and cost-efficient method that offers g...
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Published in: | Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2025-01, Vol.13 (1), p.654-668 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Traditional thermoelectric generators (TEGs) face scalability challenges due to high-temperature, long-duration curing processes and rare-earth/toxic chalcogenides such as bismuth telluride. Additive manufacturing has been investigated as a more time-, energy- and cost-efficient method that offers greater flexibility than traditional manufacturing techniques. Additionally, tetrahedrites are promising thermoelectric materials in high-temperature applications because they are non-toxic and earth-abundant. Herein, this work demonstrates the fabrication of scalable and sustainable Cu
12
Sb
4
S
13
(CAS) based composite films and flexible TEG devices (f-TEGs) with 2D MXene nanosheets using a low-thermal budget additive manufacturing approach for room temperature applications. 2D MXene nanosheets introduced energy-barrier scattering and nanoscale features to effectively increase the room-temperature
ZT
to 0.22, 10% higher than bulk CAS, by decoupling electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity. CAS and 2D MXenes were found to be environmentally safe through a bacterial viability study. The process is used to create a 5-leg f-TEG device producing a power of 5.3 μW and a power density of 140 μW cm
−2
at a Δ
T
of 25 K. Therefore, this work demonstrates that combining scalable and sustainable materials and methods is an effective strategy for high-performance room-temperature f-TEGs that could potentially harvest the low waste heat energy of the human body.
Traditional thermoelectric generators (TEGs) face scalability challenges due to high-temperature, long-duration curing processes and rare-earth/toxic chalcogenides such as bismuth telluride. |
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ISSN: | 2050-7488 2050-7496 |
DOI: | 10.1039/d4ta05056h |