This paper focuses on the production of electricity using a thermoelectric generator placed on the human body connected to a dc-dc converter. The small difference in temperature between the hot heat source (e.g. the human body, Tb = 37 ◦C) and the cold heat source (e.g. ambient air, Ta = 22 ◦C), associated with a poor quality thermal coupling (mainly with the cold source), leads to a very low t...

A thermodynamic model of a thermoelectric generator-driven thermoelectric heat pump (TEG-TEH) combined device is established considering the Thomson effect and the temperature dependence of the thermoelectric properties based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Energy analysis and exergy analysis are performed. New expressions for heating load, maximum working temperature difference, coefficient...

Using thermoelectric compatibility, efficient thermoelectric generators are rationally designed. With examples, compatible and incompatible systems are explained and materials proposed for targeted development. The compatibility factor explains why segmentation of TAGS with SnTe or PbTe produces little extra power, while filled skutterudite increases the efficiency from 10.5% to 13.6%. High eff...

High performance thermoelectric materials in a wide range of temperatures are essential to broaden the application spectrum of thermoelectric devices. This paper presents experiments on the power and efficiency characteristics of lowand mid-temperature thermoelectric materials. We show that as long as an appreciable temperature difference can be created over a short thermoelectric leg, good pow...

Zinc oxide (ZnO, n-type) and copper oxide (CuO, p-type) nanowires have been synthesized and preliminarily investigated as innovative materials for the fabrication of a proof-of-concept thermoelectric device. The Seebeck coefficients, electrical conductivity and thermoelectric power factors (TPF) of both semiconductor materials have been determined independently using a custom experimental set-u...

Abstract— In Hazardous environment industries where the emission of toxic gases and effluents will have an impact on the health of the operators, the recording of health parameters of individual operators is very important. In such situation the health monitoring of operators are being monitored and processed centrally by a server and this can be powered by a system of batteries which can be op...

The demand for portable power is large and expanding. Technologies currently available to meet this demand include batteries, fuel cells, thermophotovoltaic (TPV) generators and thermoelectric (TE) generators. Fuel cells and generators offer significantly improved performance over batteries, but issues of fuel processing and miniaturization remain. Microfabrication has the potential to address ...

SiGe is one of the best thermoelectric materials for high temperature applications. Superlattice structures can further enhance the thermoelectric properties by reducing the thermal conductivity and by increasing the Seebeck coefficient via selective emission of hot electrons through thermionic emission. SiGe/Si superlattice structures were grown on a silicon wafer using molecular beam epitaxy....

A cost-effective and reliable Ni-Au contact on nanostructured Bi2Te3-based alloys for a solar thermoelectric generator (STEG) is reported. The use of MPS SAMs creates a strong covalent binding and more nucleation sites with even distribution for electroplating contact electrodes on nanostructured thermoelectric materials. A reliable high-performance flat-panel STEG can be obtained by using this...

Most of the current thermal power-generation technologies must first convert thermal energy to mechanical work before producing electricity. Thermoelectric generation technology, as one entirely solid-state energy conversion method, can directly transform thermal energy into electricity by using thermoelectric transformation materials. A thermoelectric power converter has no moving parts, and i...