High-perfomance doctor bladed thermoelectric microlayers

This research presents a preparation route in the field of printed thermoelectric materials and manufacturing thin thermoelectric sheets with a large scale of 5 cm∙5 cm out of Sb2Te3. The manufacturing technique itself consists of three steps: First the homogenization and structuring of the Sb2Te3 with a solvent which finishes with a thermoelectric ink; second is the film coating via doctor blading and the third step is the compaction of the sheets via sintering. The obtained thermoelectric sheets are about 139 μm thick and were examined with physico-chemical measurements. The maximum thermoelectric parameters of the produced sheets are a Seebeck coefficient of 117 μV/K and an electrical conductivity of 15∙104 S/m resulting in a power factor of 2097 μW/m⋅K2.