Thermoelectric characteristics of nanocrystalline ZnO grown on fabrics for wearable power generator

The present paper reports the fabrication and characterization of low-cost and large-area flexible thermoelectric materials with nanocrystalline ZnO applicable for wearable power generator. The ZnO nanostructures were grown on cotton fabric (CF) and carbon fabric (CAF) by solvothermal synthesis. It was demonstrated that the polarity of Seebeck coefficient in ZnO-covered CF can be controlled by adding Sb and Ag. That is, for the Sb-ZnO/CF sample, the Seebeck coefficient was negative, indicating a n-type semiconductor. On the other hand, its value changed to positive for the Ag-ZnO/CF sample, indicating p-type one. For the ZnO/CAF sample, the Seebeck coefficient showed the same value as a CAF substrate. In this sample, ZnO hardly contributes to the thermoelectromotive force comparing with the CAF, which is due to a lack of the ZnO amount. (paper)