Solution processed polyaniline anchored graphene on conductive carbon fabric for high performance wearable thermoelectric generators

This study reports the novel approach to develop a wearable thermoelectric device using a low-cost deposition technique to coat PANI/G nanocomposite on carbon fabric. The sample polyaniline/graphene (20 wt%, PGCF2) coated on carbon fabric showed an electrical conductivity of 1.98 × 102 S/m 373 K and Seebeck coefficient of 18.3 ± 0.02 μVK−1 at 373 K. Further, the transport mechanism in the polyaniline-graphene nanocomposite coated on carbon fabric was dominated by a variable range hopping process. A TE device was fabricated with four couples of TE materials, where a PGCF2 sample is used as a p-type material and copper wire as an n-type material. These n and p-type legs were connected using copper tape to produce a voltage of 0.40 mV at the DT of 321 K. With these thermoelectric devices gain a new perspective in the field of wearable thermoelectric devices. The thermoelectric device holds the potential applications in portable and interactive devices. This study gives a novel approach for design and fabricating fabric based wearable thermoelectric generators with good thermoelectric properties. This innovative technique facilitates easy commercialization, making it suitable for wide range of applications, including wearable electronic devices, self-powered devices, and sensors. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first work of a polymer/fabric-based TE generator designed and fabricated using drop-casting technique.