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C6: Novel applications
An efficient application of thermoelectric (TE) materials in devices requres materials with high Seebeck coeffeicients, low thermal conductivity, and low resistivity to attain a large figure of merit. Theoretical calculations and experimental results have demonstrated that low dimensional structures can effectively enhance thermoelectric performance due to quantum confinement effect and increased phono scattering. Thin film thermoelectrics attract great interest because thin film technology is advantageous for bringing low dimensional nanostructures, the fabrication of thermoeelctric micro-cooler at chip leve, and the application in low temperature and low power consumption electronic devices. Besides, they can be deposited on flexible substrates and have high transmittance in the visible range
Our work mainly relates to the preparation of various thermoelectric thin film, expecially well arrayed nanorod, nanowires, nanotube, and nanoneedle, on different substrates. Here, we will report the work related to well arrayed Bi2Te3 nanotube formation on FTO, ITO, and Si surface. Ni nanorod was first fabricated on the above-mentioned substrate, which was further acted as template according to the galvanic displacement reaction of Ni nanowires to Bi2Te3 nanotubes reported by our group. The congugation and application of the prepared TE thin film in self-supplied photoelectrochemistry and self-supplied human body-implantable fuel cell has also been tested.