ALLPCB
Background
Thermoelectric devices (TE devices) attract interest because they directly convert heat to electricity and offer controllable active cooling. Rapid advances in wearable electronics have expanded potential TE device applications. One direction is harvesting body heat to provide continuous power for small wearable devices, allowing TE devices to act as wearable power sources. Another direction is cooling the skin to maintain thermal comfort. Compared with centralized air conditioning that consumes kilowatts per person, personalized thermal management using TE devices can be more efficient in power use and comfort control for individual users. In this context, device flexibility and conformability to human skin are important.
Different approaches have been used to obtain flexible TE devices (f-TEDs). One approach uses intrinsically flexible thermoelectric materials to fabricate f-TEDs. Although these materials offer superior intrinsic flexibility, their low thermoelectric performance prevents effective body-heat harvesting for driving wearable devices. Another approach connects high-performance thermoelectric materials with flexible electrodes such as serpentine metal traces, silver nanowires, or liquid metal, then encapsulates the assembly in a flexible elastomer. While these designs have achieved considerable body-heat power generation, most have not demonstrated effective active cooling on arbitrary geometries such as the human body. Therefore, developing an f-TED that achieves both high-performance body heat harvesting and active cooling is important for personal thermal management.
Figures and captions
Figure 1. Overview of the flexible thermoelectric device and key performance metrics.
Figure 2. Schematic of f-TED design and fabrication process.
Figure 3. Electrical performance of the f-TED.
Figure 4. Cooling and heating performance of the f-TED.
Figure 5. Recyclability and self-healing behavior of the f-TED.
Figure 6. Demonstration of the f-TED in personal thermal management applications.
