High Performance of n-Type Silver Telluride Nanoparticle-Embedded Nylon Membrane Composite Flexible Films for Thermoelectric Generators

Due to the rapid advancement of flexible electronics, flexible thermoelectric materials that capture waste thermal energy have attracted much interest in recent years. In this study, we presented the preparation of a flexible Ag2Te-nylon composite film using the vacuum filtration method, which exhibited a high Seebeck coefficient (−135.5 μV/K) and simultaneous lower thermal conductivity (0.29 W/m K), resulting in an enhanced power factor of about 450 μW/m K2 and a figure of merit (zT) of about 0.48 at 313 K. The developed composite film demonstrates good flexibility in the bending test by retaining about 87% of the electrical conductivity even after 500 times bending. A single strip of the Ag2Te-nylon film can generate a maximum power density (PDmax) of ∼466 μW/cm2 at a ΔT of ∼36.8 K. The obtained thermoelectric performance of the present flexible film is higher in comparison to that of previously reported Ag2Te-based flexible thermoelectric generators. This shows great potential for the current method of fabrication of a flexible thermoelectric film for converting low-grade heat into useful electrical energy.