Lee, Byeongmoon Cho, Hyeon Park, Kyung Tae Kim, Jin-Sang Park, Min Kim, Heesuk Hong, Yongtaek Chung, Seungjun 2024-01-19T16:04:22Z 2024-01-19T16:04:22Z 2021-09-02 2020-11 2041-1723 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/117886 Softening of thermoelectric generators facilitates conformal contact with arbitrary-shaped heat sources, which offers an opportunity to realize self-powered wearable applications. However, existing wearable thermoelectric devices inevitably exhibit reduced thermoelectric conversion efficiency due to the parasitic heat loss in high-thermal-impedance polymer substrates and poor thermal contact arising from rigid interconnects. Here, we propose compliant thermoelectric generators with intrinsically stretchable interconnects and soft heat conductors that achieve high thermoelectric performance and unprecedented conformability simultaneously. The silver-nanowire-based soft electrodes interconnect bismuth-telluride-based thermoelectric legs, effectively absorbing strain energy, which allows our thermoelectric generators to conform perfectly to curved surfaces. Metal particles magnetically self-assembled in elastomeric substrates form soft heat conductors that significantly enhance the heat transfer to the thermoelectric legs, thereby maximizing energy conversion efficiency on three-dimensional heat sources. Moreover, automated additive manufacturing paves the way for realizing self-powered wearable applications comprising hundreds of thermoelectric legs with high customizability under ambient conditions. Though flexible thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are attractive for energy harvesting applications, existing devices show low efficiency due to heat loss and poor thermal contact. Here, the authors report high-performance conformable TEGs with stretchable interconnects and soft heat conductors. English Nature Publishing Group High-performance compliant thermoelectric generators with magnetically self-assembled soft heat conductors for self-powered wearable electronics Article 10.1038/s41467-020-19756-z 1 Nature Communications, v.11, no.1 Nature Communications 11 1 Y scie scopus 000595873500002 2-s2.0-85096450323 Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology - Other Topics Article BODY HEAT DEVICES