• Wasiak, Tomasz
• Taborowska, Patrycja
• Lundström, Mari
• Sahlman, Mika
• Janas, Dawid

Abstract

Funding Information: Acknowledgments: We acknowledge the support from OtaNano–Aalto University in conducting this research. Funding Information: Funding: P.T., T.W. and D.J. would like to thank the National Centre for Research and Development, Poland (under the Leader program, Grant agreement LIDER/0001/L-8/16/NCBR/2017), for financial support of the research, and the National Agency for Academic Exchange of Poland (under the Academic International Partnerships program, grant agreement PPI/APM/2018/1/0004) for sponsoring an internship at Aalto University, Finland, which enabled the execution of a part of this study. M.L. and M.S. acknowledge the Academy of Finland’s RawMatTERS Finland Infrastructure (RAMI) based at Aalto University. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. ; Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have a wide range of unique properties, which have kept them at the forefront of research in recent decades. Due to their electrical and thermal characteristics, they are often evaluated as key components of thermogenerators. One can create thermogenerators exclusively from CNTs, without any metal counterpart, by properly selecting dopants to obtain n-and p-doped CNTs. However, the performance of CNT thermogenerators remains insufficient to reach wide commercial implementation. This study shows that molecular doping and the inclusion of ZnO nanowires (NWs) can greatly increase their application potential. Moreover, prototype modules, based on single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs), ZnO NWs, polyethyleneimine, and triazole, reveal notable capabilities for generating electrical energy, while ensuring fully scalable performance. Upon doping and the addition of ZnO nanowires, the electrical conductivity of pure SWCNTs (211 S/cm) was increased by a factor of three. Moreover, the proposed strategy enhanced the Power Factor values from 18.99 (unmodified SWCNTs) to 34.9 and 42.91 µW/m·K2 for CNTs triazole and polyethyleneimine + ZnO NWs inclusion, respectively. ; Peer reviewed

Topics

• Carbon
• inclusion
• nanotube
• electrical conductivity