Facile Fabrication of a Cu2O Thin Film with a High Seebeck Coefficient

Thermoelectric materials can directly convert waste heat into electricity with all solid state devices. Here, we report the thermoelectric properties of a Cu2O thin film with a high Seebeck coefficient. The Cu2O thin film was fabricated by oxidizing copper wire directly on stove at ambient environment. Within the temperature range of 300 to 500 K, we measured Seebeck coefficient of Cu2O thin film as high as 4000 μV/K at 370 K, higher than the most current reported Cu2O thin film (~1000 μV/K). Using the estimated resistivity about 31 Ω cm, power factor of the Cu2O thin film reached 52 μW/(m K2). We conjecture the relatively high Seebeck coefficient relates very likely to the band bending between Cu2O–Cu, Cu2O–SnO2. The high Seebeck coefficient and ensuing improved power factor can be applied in temperature/touch monitoring, transient thermoelectric cooling, and space-constrained area.