Textile-based thermoelectric generator fabricated from carbon fibers

This paper presents a textile-based thermoelectric generator (T-TEG) with 105-pair thermocouples fabricated from carbon fibers as basic material. The carbon fiber used in this study was in a tow form which contains 3000 filaments. This tow was inserted into polyester fabric by hand to form a series of float yarns on the fabric. After acetone treatment, roughly every half of the floats on both sides of the fabric was covered by acrylic dispersion to resist nickel particles during electroplating in order to get a chain of carbon-nickel thermojunction. After the acrylic dispersion was completely polymerized, the sample was electroplated in the plating solution containing nickel acetate, boric acid, and sodium dodecyl sulfate. Subsequently, the sample was washed and dried. This T-TEG was fabricated on a small piece of fabric around 12 cm × 12 cm which contains 105-pair of carbon fiber and nickel-coated carbon fiber forming a thermopile. To study its electrical properties, this T-TEG was characterized to obtain the voltage-temperature curve, the voltage-current characteristic, the output power versus current and the maximum power versus temperature. Characterization results of this T-TEG show characteristics of a typical thermoelectric generator. Scanning electron micrograph images and EDS spectra were also examined to see the nickel deposition on the carbon fiber surface.