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Nano Research 2023, 16(7): 10245-10255 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5699-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 31 May 2023

A large-area bionic skin for high-temperature energy harvesting applications

Show Author's Information Zhaojun Liu1,2 ( ),  Bian Tian1,3( ),  Yao Li1,  Jiaming Lei1,  Zhongkai Zhang1,  Jiangjiang Liu1,  Qijing Lin1,  Chengkuo Lee2,  Zhuangde Jiang1
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Manufacturing Systems Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore
Shandong Laboratory of Yantai Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing, Yantai 265503, China
Keywords:
flexible, high-temperature, bionic structure, thermoelectric generators (TEGs)
Topics:
Nanogenerators
Cite this article:
Liu Z, Tian B, Li Y, et al. A large-area bionic skin for high-temperature energy harvesting applications. Nano Research, 2023, 16(7): 10245-10255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5699-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

For the large amount of waste heat wasted in daily life and industrial production, we propose a new type of flexible thermoelectric generators (F-TEGs) which can be used as a large area bionic skin to achieve energy harvesting of thermal energy. With reference to biological structures such as pinecone, succulent, and feathers, we have designed and fabricated a biomimetic flexible TEG that can be applied in a wide temperature range which has the highest temperature energy harvesting capability currently. The laminated free structure of the bionic F-TEG dramatically increases the efficiency and density of energy harvesting. The F-TEGs (single TEG only 101.2 mg in weight), without an additional heat sink, demonstrates the highest output voltage density of 286.1 mV/cm2 and the maximum power density is 66.5 mW/m2 at a temperature difference of nearly 1000 °C. The flexible characteristics of F-TEGs make it possible to collect the diffused thermal energy by flexible attachment to the outer walls of high-temperature pipes and vessels of different diameters and shapes. This work shows a new design and application concept for flexible thermal energy collectors, which fills the gap of flexible energy harvesting in high-temperature environment.


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About this article

A large-area bionic skin for high-temperature energy harvesting applications

Show Author's information Zhaojun Liu1,2 ( ), Bian Tian1,3( ), Yao Li1, Jiaming Lei1, Zhongkai Zhang1, Jiangjiang Liu1, Qijing Lin1, Chengkuo Lee2, Zhuangde Jiang1
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Manufacturing Systems Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore
Shandong Laboratory of Yantai Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing, Yantai 265503, China

Abstract

For the large amount of waste heat wasted in daily life and industrial production, we propose a new type of flexible thermoelectric generators (F-TEGs) which can be used as a large area bionic skin to achieve energy harvesting of thermal energy. With reference to biological structures such as pinecone, succulent, and feathers, we have designed and fabricated a biomimetic flexible TEG that can be applied in a wide temperature range which has the highest temperature energy harvesting capability currently. The laminated free structure of the bionic F-TEG dramatically increases the efficiency and density of energy harvesting. The F-TEGs (single TEG only 101.2 mg in weight), without an additional heat sink, demonstrates the highest output voltage density of 286.1 mV/cm2 and the maximum power density is 66.5 mW/m2 at a temperature difference of nearly 1000 °C. The flexible characteristics of F-TEGs make it possible to collect the diffused thermal energy by flexible attachment to the outer walls of high-temperature pipes and vessels of different diameters and shapes. This work shows a new design and application concept for flexible thermal energy collectors, which fills the gap of flexible energy harvesting in high-temperature environment.

Keywords: flexible, high-temperature, bionic structure, thermoelectric generators (TEGs)

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 27 February 2023
Revised: 25 March 2023
Accepted: 28 March 2023
Published: 31 May 2023
Issue date: July 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2020YFB2009100), the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (No. 2022JQ-508), the National Science and Technology Major Project (No. J2019-V-0006-0100), and the Open research fund of SKLMS (No. sklms2021009). Zhaojun Liu received the China Scholarship Council Fund (No. 202206280155) for his research stay at National University of Singapore.

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