Fabrication of Metal Alloy-Deposited Flexible MWCNT Buckypaper for Thermoelectric Applications

We report the fabrication of a flexible network of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) known as buckypaper (BP) for thermoelectric (TE) applications. A thermal evaporation method was used to deposit TE metal alloys onto the BP. The TE properties were improved primarily by increasing the Seebeck coef...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jih-Hsin Liu, Hsin-Yuan Miao, Saravanan Lakshmanan, Li-Chih Wang, Ren-Hui Tsai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2013-01-01
Series:Journal of Nanomaterials
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/635647
Description
Summary:We report the fabrication of a flexible network of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) known as buckypaper (BP) for thermoelectric (TE) applications. A thermal evaporation method was used to deposit TE metal alloys onto the BP. The TE properties were improved primarily by increasing the Seebeck coefficient values (50 and 75 μV/K) and the electrical conductivity by approximately 10 000 S/m. High-temperature resistivity studies were performed to confirm the semiconductivity of buckypaper. Variations in resistivity were observed to be the result of the metal alloys coated on the BP surface. We also demonstrated that a substantial increase in the Seebeck coefficient values can be obtained by connecting 3 and 5 layers of metal-deposited BP in series, thereby enhancing the TE efficiency of MWCNT-based BP for application in thermoelectric devices.
ISSN:1687-4110
1687-4129