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  • Accepted Manuscript: Carbon-Nanotube-Based Thermoelectric Materials and Devices

This content will become publicly available on January 22, 2019

Title: Carbon-Nanotube-Based Thermoelectric Materials and Devices

Conversion of waste heat to voltage has the potential to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of a number of critical energy sectors, such as the transportation and electricity-generation sectors, and manufacturing processes. Thermal energy is also an abundant low-flux source that can be harnessed to power portable/wearable electronic devices and critical components in remote off-grid locations. As such, a number of different inorganic and organic materials are being explored for their potential in thermoelectric-energy-harvesting devices. Carbon-based thermoelectric materials are particularly attractive due to their use of nontoxic, abundant source-materials, their amenability to high-throughput solution-phase fabrication routes, and the high specific energy (i.e., W g-1) enabled by their low mass. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) represent a unique 1D carbon allotrope with structural, electrical, and thermal properties that enable efficient thermoelectric-energy conversion. Here, the progress made toward understanding the fundamental thermoelectric properties of SWCNTs, nanotube-based composites, and thermoelectric devices prepared from these materials is reviewed in detail. This progress illuminates the tremendous potential that carbon-nanotube-based materials and composites have for producing high-performance next-generation devices for thermoelectric-energy harvesting.
Authors:
 [1] ;  [1] ;  [2] ;  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
Publication Date:
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5900-70041
Journal ID: ISSN 0935-9648
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Advanced Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 30; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
Wiley
Research Org:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), NREL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; carbon nanotubes; composite materials; energy harvesting; organic electronics; thermoelectrics
OSTI Identifier:
1419418
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1417708