Abstract
Thermoelectric (TE) textiles which can harvest thermal energy from the human body, are highly desirable and vital to the charging of wearable electronics owing to their stable and long-term power output. The typical carbon nanotube (CNT) yarns or bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) based inorganic TE materials used hitherto limit the development of TE textiles, because of their high cost and rareness. In this work, scalable and high-TE performance carbon nanotube composite yarns (CNTYs) are developed using p- and n-type tuneable multi-wall CNTs and single-wall CNTs as TE materials and waterborne polyurethane (WPU) as the binder. The mechanical properties of the CNTYs are tuned and improved considerably by adding a small amount of WPU. Furthermore, TE yarns with p- and n-type segmented structures are prepared by treating CNTYs with poly(3, 4-ethylene dioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate solution and n-type dopant polyetherimide, respectively. Based on the prepared p- and n-type segmented TE yarns, a TE textile with 75 p–n pairs that achieve outstanding TE output is fabricated. The TE textile can generate a high power density of 95.74 μW m−2 with a voltage density of 3.76 V m−2 at a temperature difference of 32 K. It provides an output voltage of ~ 37 mV outdoors (~ 12 ℃) when worn on the arm and demonstrates potential application to electronic devices after amplification. The fabrication method used in this study is not only a low-cost, scalable for preparing high-performance TE yarns but also realizes the body heat harvesting and temperature sensing of yarn-based TE textiles.
Graphical Abstract
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data available from the authors.
References
Uzun S, Seyedin S, Stoltzfus AL, Levitt AS, Alhabeb M, Anayee M, Strobel CJ, Razal JM, Dion G, Gogotsi Y. Knittable and washable multifunctional MXene-coated cellulose yarns. Adv Funct Mater. 2019;29:1905015.
Zheng YY, Zhang QH, Jin WL, Jing YY, Chen XY, Han X, Bao QY, Liu YP, Wang XH, Wang SR, Qiu YP, Di C-A, Zhang K. Carbon nanotube yarn based thermoelectric textiles for harvesting thermal energy and powering electronics. J Mater Chem A. 2020;8:2984.
Jing TT, Xu BG, Yang YJ. Organogel electrode based continuous fiber with large-scale production for stretchable triboelectric nanogenerator textiles. Nano Energy. 2021;84: 105867.
Sattar M, Yeo W-H. Recent advances in materials for wearable thermoelectric generators and biosensing devices. Materials. 2022;15:4315.
Peng Y, Wang ZS, Shao YF, Xu JJ, Wang XD, Hu JC, Zhang K-Q. A review of recent development of wearable triboelectric nanogenerators aiming at human clothing for energy conversion. Polymers. 2023;15:508.
Zhao DZ, Zhang KJ, Meng Y, Li ZY, Pi YC, Shi YJ, You JC, Wang RK, Dai ZY, Zhou BP, Zhong JW. Untethered triboelectric patch for wearable smart sensing and energy harvesting. Nano Energy. 2022;100: 107500.
Bae J, Song J, Jeong W, Nandanapalli KR, Son N, Zulkifli NAB, Gwon G, Kim M, Yoo S, Lee H, Choi H, Lee S, Cheng HY, Kim C, Jang KI, Lee S. Multi-deformable piezoelectric energy nano-generator with high conversion efficiency for subtle body movements. Nano Energy. 2022;97: 107223.
Wang YL, Zhou ZY, Zhou JB, Shao LH, Wang Y, Deng Y. High-performance stretchable organic thermoelectric generator via rational thermal interface design for wearable electronics. Adv Energy Mater. 2022;12:2102835.
Fan WS, Shen ZY, Zhang Q, Liu F, Fu CG, Zhu TJ, Zhao XB. High-power-density wearable thermoelectric generators for human body heat harvesting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022;14:21224.
Liu L, Chen J, Liang LR, Deng L, Chen GM. A PEDOT: PSS thermoelectric fiber generator. Nano Energy. 2022;102: 107678.
He XY, Gu JT, Hao YN, Zheng M, Wang R, Yu LM, Qin JY. Continuous manufacture of stretchable and integratable thermoelectric nanofiber yarn for human body energy harvesting and self-powered motion detection. Chem Eng J. 2022;450:137937.
Jang D, Park KT, Lee S-S, Kim H. Highly stretchable three-dimensional thermoelectric fabrics exploiting woven structure deformability and passivation-induced fiber elasticity. Nano Energy. 2022;97: 107143.
Lee JA, Aliev AE, Bykova JS, de Andrade MJ, Kim D, Sim HJ, Lepró X, Zakhidov AA, Lee J-B, Spinks GM, Roth S, Kim SJ, Baughman RH. Woven-yarn thermoelectric textiles. Adv Mater. 2016;28:5038.
Zheng YY, Han X, Yang JW, Jing YY, Chen XY, Li QQ, Zhang T, Li GD, Zhu HT, Zhao HZ, Snyder GJ, Zhang K. Durable, stretchable and washable inorganic-based woven thermoelectric textiles for power generation and solid-state cooling. Energy Environ Sci. 2022;15:2374.
Yang XN, Zhang K. Direct wet-spun single-walled carbon nanotubes-based p-n segmented filaments toward wearable thermoelectric textiles. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022;14:44704.
Paleo AJ, Vieira EMF, Wan K, Bondarchuk O, Cerqueira MF, Bilotti E, Melle-Franco M, Rocha AM. Vapor grown carbon nanofiber based cotton fabrics with negative thermoelectric power. Cellulose. 2020;27:9091.
Lu ZS, Zhang HH, Mao CP, Li CM. Silk fabric-based wearable thermoelectric generator for energy harvesting from the human body. Appl Energy. 2016;164:57.
Sun TT, Zhou BY, Zheng Q, Wang LJ, Jiang W, Snyder GJ. Stretchable fabric generates electric power from woven thermoelectric fibers. Nat Commun. 2020;11:572.
Zhang YC, Zhang QC, Chen GM. Carbon and carbon composites for thermoelectric applications. Carbon Energy. 2020;2:408.
Zhang CY, Zhang Q, Zhang D, Wang MY, Bo YW, Fan XQ, Li FC, Liang JJ, Huang Y, Ma RJ, Chen YS. Highly stretchable carbon nanotubes/polymer thermoelectric fibers. Nano Lett. 2021;21:1047.
Subjalearndee N, He NF, Cheng H, Tesatchabut P, Eiamlamai P, Limthongkul P, Intasanta V, Gao W, Zhang XW. Gamma (ɣ)-MnO2/rGO fibered cathode fabrication from wet spinning and dip coating techniques for cable-shaped Zn-ion batteries. Adv Fiber Mater. 2022;1:457.
Ma LY, Nie Y, Liu YR, Huo F, Bai L, Li Q, Zhang SJ. Preparation of core/shell electrically conductive fibers by efficient coating carbon nanotubes on polyester. Adv Fiber Mater. 2021;3:180.
Maity D, Rajavel K, Kumar RTR. Polyvinyl alcohol wrapped multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) network on fabrics for wearable room temperature ethanol sensor. Sens Actuat B Chem. 2018;261:297.
Wu Q, Hu JL. A novel design for a wearable thermoelectric generator based on 3D fabric structure. Smart Mater Struct. 2017;26: 045037.
Kim J-Y, Lee W, Kang YH, Cho SY, Jang K-S. Wet-spinning and post-treatment of CNT/PEDOT: PSS composites for use in organic fiber-based thermoelectric generators. Carbon. 2018;133:293.
Ryu Y, Freeman D, Yu C. High electrical conductivity and n-type thermopower from double-/single-wall carbon nanotubes by manipulating charge interactions between nanotubes and organic/inorganic nanomaterials. Carbon. 2011;49:4745.
Wang Y, Ke GZ, Chen SH, Jin XY. Fabrication and characterization of polyurethane and zirconium carbide coated cotton yarn. Cellulose. 2022;29:647.
Gebhardt B, Hof F, Backes C, Müller M, Plocke T, Maultzsch J, Thomsen C, Hauke F, Hirsch A. Selective polycarboxylation of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes by reductive sidewall functionalization. J Am Chem Soc. 2011;133:19459.
Bharti M, Singh A, Singh BP, Dhakate SR, Saini G, Bhattacharya S, Debnath AK, Muthe KP, Aswal DK. Free-standing flexible multiwalled carbon nanotubes paper for wearable thermoelectric power generator. J Power Sourc. 2020;449: 227493.
Yan H, Li QW, Zhang J, Liu ZF. Possible tactics to improve the growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition. Carbon. 2002;40:2693.
Song HJ, Qiu Y, Wang Y, Cai KF, Li DL, Deng Y, He JQ. Polymer/carbon nanotube composite materials for flexible thermoelectric power generator. Compos Sci Technol. 2017;153:71.
Wang LM, Zhang J, Guo YT, Chen XY, Jin XM, Yang QY, Zhang K, Wang SR, Qiu YP. Fabrication of core-shell structured poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/carbon nanotube hybrids with enhanced thermoelectric power factors. Carbon. 2019;148:290.
Lan XQ, Wang TZ, Liu CC, Liu PP, Xu JK, Liu XF, Du YK, Jiang FX. A high performance all-organic thermoelectric fiber generator towards promising wearable electron. Compos Sci Technol. 2019;182: 107767.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation for Key Program of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions grant number 17KJA540002; Nantong Science and Technology Bureau, grant number JC2021043 and Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 51603135, 51873134.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
No conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Supplementary file2 (MP4 33499 kb)
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Jiang, W., Li, T., Hussain, B. et al. Facile Fabrication of Cotton-Based Thermoelectric Yarns for the Construction of Textile Generator with High Performance in Human Heat Harvesting. Adv. Fiber Mater. 5, 1725–1736 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-023-00305-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-023-00305-4