ABSTRACT
To examine the potential of organic thermoelectrics (TEs) for energy harvesting, we fabricated an organic TE module to achieve 250 mV in the open-circuit voltage which is sufficient to drive a commercially available booster circuit designed for energy harvesting usage. We chose the π-type module structure to maintain the temperature differences in organic TE legs, and then optimized the p- and n-type TE materials’ properties. After injecting the p- and n-type TE materials into photolithographic mold, we eventually achieved 250 mV in the open-circuit voltage by a method to form the upper electrodes. However, we faced a difficulty to reduce the contact resistance in this material system. We conclude that TE materials must be inversely designed from the viewpoints of the expected module structures and mass-production processes, especially for the purpose of energy harvesting.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
![](/cms/asset/7c3b27fe-10fe-4b1e-8bbb-88f7d26329a5/tsta_a_1487239_uf0001_oc.jpg)
Acknowledgments
The study was financially supported by NIMS and Denka. Kyowa Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. provided KW-1000S. We thank K. Ogata for his technical assistance on the ZEM-3 measurement.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.