Flexible hybrid piezoelectric-thermoelectric generator for harnessing electrical energy from mechanical and thermal energy

Highlights: • Thermoelectric and piezoelectric effect based flexible hybrid device. • Piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) is made of PVDF-ZnO. • Thermoelectric generator (TEG) is made of n-Bi₂Te₃-RGO and p-Sb₂Te₃-RGO. • The output power of TEG and PENG is ∼1.8 nW at ΔT = 4 K and ∼1.2 µW, respectively. -- Abstract: Thermoelectric and piezoelectric generators have drawn considerable attention for generating electrical energy from heat and mechanical vibrations for replacing the commercially available rechargeable batteries. In this report, we have fabricated flexible hybrid device by combining of the piezoelectric nanogenerator (PVDF-ZnO) and thermoelectric generator (n-leg and p-leg made of Bi₂Te₃-RGO (Reduced Graphene Oxide) and Sb₂Te₃-RGO, respectively) by simple chemical solution method. The focus of this research is to integrate thermoelectric and piezoelectric in a small flexible device to harvest electrical energy from both thermal and mechanical energies. The output power of thermoelectric generator is ∼1.8 nW at a temperature difference of 4 K and the output power of piezoelectric generator is ∼1.2 µW.