Vacancy-Rich Silicon as a Flexible Thermoelectric Material

在全球范围内，超过15TW的电力以余热的形式持续损失。热电发电机(TEG)提供了一种减少这种浪费的方法，即通过收集热量并利用它来产生电力。虽然三甘醇装置的转换效率通常为10%，但大量的废热提供了免费的燃料来源，使得三甘醇对许多不同的应用具有吸引力。随着柔性/可穿戴电子产品的出现，以及传感器的普及，薄膜TIG(有源厚度，1-20微米)预计将成为未来的核心市场部门，所有这些都需要低功率。如果TEG能够以低成本和更高的功能(如柔性)生产，它们的潜力将成为未来改善我们生活质量的电子设备的电源。作为发电机的替代品，同样的薄膜技术也可以反过来用于小规模的加热/冷却应用，薄膜模块已经用于高性能电子产品(空间、军事和航空航天应用)的芯片冷却。基于硅的技术因其许多实用优势而支撑着全球电子行业。如果不是因为硅的糟糕的热电转换性能，这些同样的好处也会延伸到TEG。该项目将在我们开展的初步工作的基础上，在“富空位硅”领域开展开创性的材料工作--基本上是在原子水平上去除许多原子的硅，这表明富空位硅与其他最先进的热电材料相比具有竞争力。基于富含空位的硅的柔性薄膜测试仪的实现将是一个变革性的步骤，适用于许多应用，包括发电和服装内的供暖/制冷，这是我们与行业合作伙伴特别瞄准的目标。

Over 15 TW of power is continually lost worldwide in the form of waste heat. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) offer one method of reducing this waste, by harvesting the heat and using it to create electrical power. While the conversion efficiency of TEG devices is often <10%, the sheer abundance of waste heat, offering a free fuel source, makes TEGs appealing for many diverse applications. This proposal is aimed at thin-film TEGs (active thickness, 1-20 micrometres), forecast to be a core market sector in the future, with the advent of flexible/wearable electronics, and with the increased uptake of sensors, all of which require low-power. If TEGs can be produced at low-cost and with increased functionality (e.g. flexible), their potential is significant to act as a power source for future electronic devices that improve our quality of life. As an alternative to generators, the same thin-film technology can also be used in reverse for small-scale heating/cooling applications, with thin-film modules already used for chip-cooling in high-performance electronics (space, military and aerospace applications). Silicon-based technologies underpin the global electronics industry due to their many practical advantages. These same benefits would extend to TEGs were it not for the poor thermoelectric conversion performance of silicon. This project will undertake pioneering materials work in the area of "vacancy-rich silicon" - essentially silicon with many atoms removed at the atomic level - building on initial work carried-out by us, which has shown vacancy-rich silicon to be competitive with other state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials. The realisation of flexible thin-film TEGs based on vacancy-rich silicon will represent a transformative step applicable to numerous applications, including power generation and heating/cooling within clothing, as targeted specifically by us in co-operation with our industry partners.