Design and fabrication of printed wearable energy device

Abstract

Among the wearable energy devices available, flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG) devices are the only ones that can convert heat energy back into useful electrical power. They can be made by depositing conductive ink directly onto substrates that are polymer-based using 3D printing techniques. While these polymer versions are flexible, they lack breathability that will affect the user’s comfort when worn for extended periods of time. The goal of this project is to fabricate a TEG device using a textile-based substrate that will be breathable and comfortable to wear using 3D printing technology. Porosity of the textile substrates made it difficult to create samples with nanowire networks that have good connectivity and have ideal thermoelectric characteristics. To tackle this problem, different number of print layers and different substrates were explored to find the best fabrication approach. To achieve the goal, existing fabrication methods and materials were studied, leading up to Aerosol Jet Printing, Bismuth Telluride and textile-based substrates being used in this project. Key findings in this project include fabric substrate’s unsuitability for thermoelectric applications and Polyethylene Oxide (PEO) nanofibers substrate’s promising future to yield conductive samples with good thermoelectric properties.