Wearable Thermoelectric Devices Based on Three-Dimensional PEDOT:Tosylate/CuI Paper Composites

Author(s):  
Tanmoy Maji ◽  
Anna Maria Rousti ◽  
Abbas Parvez Kazi ◽  
Christopher Drew ◽  
Jayant Kumar ◽  
...  
2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan B. Crane ◽  
Patrick McKnight

Thermoelectric devices have many scaling benefits that motivate miniaturization, but assembly of small components is a significant challenge. Self-assembly provides a promising method for integrating very small elements. However, it introduces the possibility of stochastic errors with significant performance impacts. This work presents a method to estimate the impact of these errors on system performance. Equivalent thermoelectric properties are developed that adjust for the effect of missing elements in one-dimensional thermoelectric models. The models show that the thermoelectric devices can accommodate significant self-assembly errors by incorporation of redundant electrical paths. The model shows nearly linear decline in effective power factor with declining assembly accuracy, but the effective figure of merit (ZT) is relatively insensitive to assembly errors. Predictions from the modified one-dimensional model agree well with three-dimensional finite element simulations. This work identifies two basic strategies for how devices such as thermoelectric could be designed for self-assembly and demonstrates that it is possible to achieve high performance despite self-assembly process errors.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Numa Gillet ◽  
Yann Chalopin ◽  
Sebastian Volz

Superlattices with thermal-insulating behaviors have been studied to design thermoelectric materials but affect heat transfer in only one main direction and often show many cracks and dislocations near their layer interfaces. Quantum-dot (QD) self-assembly is an emerging epitaxial technology to design ultradense arrays of germanium QDs in silicon for many promising electronic and photonic applications such as quantum computing, where accurate QD positioning is required. We theoretically demonstrate that high-density three-dimensional (3D) arrays of molecular-size self-assembled Ge QDs in Si can also show very low thermal conductivity in the three spatial directions. This physical property can be considered in designing new silicon-based crystalline thermoelectric devices, which are compatible with the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. To obtain a computationally manageable model of these nanomaterials, we investigate their thermal-insulating behavior with atomic-scale 3D phononic crystals: A phononic-crystal period or supercell consists of diamond-cubic (DC) Si cells. At each supercell center, we substitute Si atoms by Ge atoms in a given number of DC unit cells to form a boxlike nanoparticle (i.e., QD). The nanomaterial thermal conductivity can be reduced by several orders of magnitude compared with bulk Si. A part of this reduction is due to the significant decrease in the phonon group velocities derived from the flat dispersion curves, which are computed with classical lattice dynamics. Moreover, according to the wave-particle duality at small scales, another reduction is obtained from multiple scattering of the particlelike phonons in nanoparticle clusters, which breaks their mean free paths (MFPs) in the 3D nanoparticle array. However, we use an incoherent analytical model of this particlelike scattering. This model leads to overestimations of the MFPs and thermal conductivity, which is nevertheless lower than the minimal Einstein limit of bulk Si and is reduced by a factor of at least 165 compared with bulk Si in an example nanomaterial. We expect an even larger decrease in the thermal conductivity than that predicted in this paper owing to multiple scattering, which can lead to a ZT much larger than unity.


RSC Advances ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (28) ◽  
pp. 22173-22177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoliang Yun ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Laifa Shen ◽  
Hui Dou ◽  
Xiaogang Zhang

An ultralight and highly conductive graphene nanosheet/carbon nanotube paper composites have been prepared as high-rate free-standing flexible electrodes for electrochemical capacitors.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 2832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing-Hui Meng ◽  
Hao-Chi Wu ◽  
Tian-Hu Wang

Due to their advantages of self-powered capability and compact size, combined thermoelectric devices, in which a thermoelectric cooler module is driven by a thermoelectric generator module, have become promising candidates for cooling applications in extreme conditions or environments where the room is confined and the power supply is sacrificed. When the device is designed as two-stage configuration for larger temperature difference, the design degree is larger than that of a single-stage counterpart. The element number allocation to each stage in the system has a significant influence on the device performance. However, this issue has not been well-solved in previous studies. This work proposes a three-dimensional multi-physics model coupled with multi-objective genetic algorithm to optimize the optimal element number allocation with the coefficient of performance and cooling capacity simultaneously as multi-objective functions. This method increases the accuracy of performance prediction compared with the previously reported examples studied by the thermal resistance model. The results show that the performance of the optimized device is remarkably enhanced, where the cooling capacity is increased by 23.3% and the coefficient of performance increased by 122.0% compared with the 1# Initial Solution. The mechanism behind this enhanced performance is analyzed. The results in this paper should be beneficial for engineers and scientists seeking to design a combined thermoelectric device with optimal performance under the constraint of total element number.


1966 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 227-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Brouwer

The paper presents a summary of the results obtained by C. J. Cohen and E. C. Hubbard, who established by numerical integration that a resonance relation exists between the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. The problem may be explored further by approximating the motion of Pluto by that of a particle with negligible mass in the three-dimensional (circular) restricted problem. The mass of Pluto and the eccentricity of Neptune's orbit are ignored in this approximation. Significant features of the problem appear to be the presence of two critical arguments and the possibility that the orbit may be related to a periodic orbit of the third kind.


Author(s):  
M. Boublik ◽  
W. Hellmann ◽  
F. Jenkins

The present knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of ribosomes is far too limited to enable a complete understanding of the various roles which ribosomes play in protein biosynthesis. The spatial arrangement of proteins and ribonuclec acids in ribosomes can be analysed in many ways. Determination of binding sites for individual proteins on ribonuclec acid and locations of the mutual positions of proteins on the ribosome using labeling with fluorescent dyes, cross-linking reagents, neutron-diffraction or antibodies against ribosomal proteins seem to be most successful approaches. Structure and function of ribosomes can be correlated be depleting the complete ribosomes of some proteins to the functionally inactive core and by subsequent partial reconstitution in order to regain active ribosomal particles.


Author(s):  
P.L. Moore

Previous freeze fracture results on the intact giant, amoeba Chaos carolinensis indicated the presence of a fibrillar arrangement of filaments within the cytoplasm. A complete interpretation of the three dimensional ultrastructure of these structures, and their possible role in amoeboid movement was not possible, since comparable results could not be obtained with conventional fixation of intact amoebae. Progress in interpreting the freeze fracture images of amoebae required a more thorough understanding of the different types of filaments present in amoebae, and of the ways in which they could be organized while remaining functional.The recent development of a calcium sensitive, demembranated, amoeboid model of Chaos carolinensis has made it possible to achieve a better understanding of such functional arrangements of amoeboid filaments. In these models the motility of demembranated cytoplasm can be controlled in vitro, and the chemical conditions necessary for contractility, and cytoplasmic streaming can be investigated. It is clear from these studies that “fibrils” exist in amoeboid models, and that they are capable of contracting along their length under conditions similar to those which cause contraction in vertebrate muscles.


Author(s):  
G. Stöffler ◽  
R.W. Bald ◽  
J. Dieckhoff ◽  
H. Eckhard ◽  
R. Lührmann ◽  
...  

A central step towards an understanding of the structure and function of the Escherichia coli ribosome, a large multicomponent assembly, is the elucidation of the spatial arrangement of its 54 proteins and its three rRNA molecules. The structural organization of ribosomal components has been investigated by a number of experimental approaches. Specific antibodies directed against each of the 54 ribosomal proteins of Escherichia coli have been performed to examine antibody-subunit complexes by electron microscopy. The position of the bound antibody, specific for a particular protein, can be determined; it indicates the location of the corresponding protein on the ribosomal surface.The three-dimensional distribution of each of the 21 small subunit proteins on the ribosomal surface has been determined by immuno electron microscopy: the 21 proteins have been found exposed with altogether 43 antibody binding sites. Each one of 12 proteins showed antibody binding at remote positions on the subunit surface, indicating highly extended conformations of the proteins concerned within the 30S ribosomal subunit; the remaining proteins are, however, not necessarily globular in shape (Fig. 1).


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