Ultra-high performance wearable thermoelectric coolers with less materials

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09707-8

Title: Ultra-high performance wearable thermoelectric coolers with less materials

Abstract

Thermoelectric coolers are attracting significant attention for replacing age-old cooling and refrigeration devices. Localized cooling by wearable thermoelectric coolers will decrease the usage of traditional systems, thereby reducing global warming and providing savings on energy costs. Since human skin as well as ambient air is a poor conductor of heat, wearable thermoelectric coolers operate under huge thermally resistive environment. The external thermal resistances greatly influence thermoelectric material behavior, device design, and device performance, which presents a fundamental challenge in achieving high efficiency for on-body applications. Here, we examine the combined effect of heat source/sink thermal resistances and thermoelectric material properties on thermoelectric cooler performance. Efficient thermoelectric coolers demonstrated here can cool the human skin up to 8.2 °C below the ambient temperature (170% higher cooling than commercial modules). Cost-benefit analysis shows that cooling over material volume for our optimized thermoelectric cooler is 500% higher than that of the commercial modules.

Authors:

Kishore, Ravi Anant ^[1];

^[2]; Poudel, Bed ^[2]; Sanghadasa, Mohan ^[3];

^[4]

Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States). Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems; National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Redstone Arsenal, AL (United States). Aviation and Missile Center
Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States). Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems; Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

Publication Date:: 2019-04-16

Research Org.:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: National Science Foundation (NSF); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (United States); US Army Research Office (ARO)

OSTI Identifier:: 1510421

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5500-73842
Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Nature Communications

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing Group

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 42 ENGINEERING; thermoelectric devices and materials

Citation Formats


                    Kishore, Ravi Anant, Nozariasbmarz, Amin, Poudel, Bed, Sanghadasa, Mohan, and Priya, Shashank. Ultra-high performance wearable thermoelectric coolers with less materials.  United States: N. p., 2019. 
        Web.  doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09707-8.

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                    Kishore, Ravi Anant, Nozariasbmarz, Amin, Poudel, Bed, Sanghadasa, Mohan, & Priya, Shashank. Ultra-high performance wearable thermoelectric coolers with less materials.  United States.  doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09707-8.

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                    Kishore, Ravi Anant, Nozariasbmarz, Amin, Poudel, Bed, Sanghadasa, Mohan, and Priya, Shashank. Tue .  
        "Ultra-high performance wearable thermoelectric coolers with less materials".  United States.  doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09707-8.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1510421.

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@article{osti_1510421,

  title        = {Ultra-high performance wearable thermoelectric coolers with less materials},

  author       = {Kishore, Ravi Anant and Nozariasbmarz, Amin and Poudel, Bed and Sanghadasa, Mohan and Priya, Shashank},

  abstractNote = {Thermoelectric coolers are attracting significant attention for replacing age-old cooling and refrigeration devices. Localized cooling by wearable thermoelectric coolers will decrease the usage of traditional systems, thereby reducing global warming and providing savings on energy costs. Since human skin as well as ambient air is a poor conductor of heat, wearable thermoelectric coolers operate under huge thermally resistive environment. The external thermal resistances greatly influence thermoelectric material behavior, device design, and device performance, which presents a fundamental challenge in achieving high efficiency for on-body applications. Here, we examine the combined effect of heat source/sink thermal resistances and thermoelectric material properties on thermoelectric cooler performance. Efficient thermoelectric coolers demonstrated here can cool the human skin up to 8.2 °C below the ambient temperature (170% higher cooling than commercial modules). Cost-benefit analysis shows that cooling over material volume for our optimized thermoelectric cooler is 500% higher than that of the commercial modules.},

  doi          = {10.1038/s41467-019-09707-8},

  journal      = {Nature Communications},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 10,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2019},

  month        = {4}

}

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09707-8

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Works referenced in this record:

Complex thermoelectric materials
journal, February 2008

Snyder, G. Jeffrey; Toberer, Eric S.
Nature Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 2, p. 105-114
DOI: 10.1038/nmat2090

Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of merit
journal, October 2001

Venkatasubramanian, Rama; Siivola, Edward; Colpitts, Thomas
Nature, Vol. 413, Issue 6856, p. 597-602
DOI: 10.1038/35098012

High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys
journal, May 2008

Poudel, B.; Hao, Q.; Ma, Y.
Science, Vol. 320, Issue 5876, p. 634-638
DOI: 10.1126/science.1156446

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Title: Ultra-high performance wearable thermoelectric coolers with less materials

Abstract

Citation Formats

Complex thermoelectric materials journal, February 2008

Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of merit journal, October 2001

High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys journal, May 2008

Complex thermoelectric materials
journal, February 2008

Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of merit
journal, October 2001

High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys
journal, May 2008