Flexible thermoelectrics: From energy harvesting to human-machine interaction

Abstract

Thermoelectrics is the simplest technology applicable for direct energy conversion between heat and electricity. After over 60 years of fruitful research efforts, recent boom in flexible electronics has promoted the rapid development of flexible thermoelectrics with rising performances, discovery of new materials and concepts, unconventional device configuration, and emerging applications not possible for traditional thermoelectric (TE) semiconductors. In this Perspective, we first overview representative flexible TE materials, then discuss recent breakthroughs for flexible TE devices assembled from various types of TE materials employing different technical routes. They exhibit promising power generation and sensing performances, and aim for applications in wearable electronics, such as the power supply harvesting heat from body for low-power electronics, temperature sensors for tactile e-skin, and newly emerged application as a thermo-haptic device in an extended reality system.