Semi-transparent thermo-electric cells based on bismuth telluride and its composites with CNTs and graphene

Abstract

In this paper, semi-transparent thin film thermo-electric cells based on the composite of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3, p-type and n-type) with graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been reported. The voltage, current and Seebeck effect have been measured as a function of the temperature gradient. It was found that the addition of the CNTs and graphene in the Bi2Te3 matrix increase the thermo-electric current and the thermo-electric voltage of the Bi2Te3 based control cells. The thermoelectric performance of the Bi2Te3/CNTs composite was found to be superior as compared to the Bi2Te3/graphene composite. Furthermore, the addition of the CNTs or graphene in n- Bi2Te3 showed better improvement in thermo-electric properties as compared to their composite with p- Bi2Te3. Potentially, the semitransparent thermo-electric cells can be used for fabrication of special windows which can produce the electric power due to the temperature gradient.