Screen printed flexible Bi2Te3-Sb2Te3 based thermoelectric generator

This paper reports the fabrication and testing of Bismuth Tellurium (Bi2Te3) - Antimony Tellurium (Sb2Te3) based thermocouples using screen printing technology. In this study, screen printable thermoelectric pastes were developed and the transport properties of cured material were measured. The dimension of each planer thermoleg is 39.3 mm x 3 mm with a thickness of 67 mu m for Bi2Te3 leg and 62 mu m for Sb2Te3 leg. A single thermocouple with this dimension can generate a voltage of 6 mV and a peak output power of 48 nW at a temperature difference of 20 degrees C. The calculated Seebeck coefficient of a single thermocouple is in the range of 262 - 282 mu V/K. The Seebeck coefficient at room temperature were measured to be -134 - -119 mu V/K and 128 - 134 mu V/K for Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 respectively. This work demonstrates that the low-cost screen printing technology and low-temperature materials are promising for the fabrication of flexible thermoelectric generators (TEGs).