Thermoelectric energy harvesting using array of vertically aligned Al-doped ZnO nanorods

Abstract Renewable energy harvesting is an innovative research area which has attracted a great deal of efforts to find a substitute for fossil sources. This work presents processing and characterization of thermoelectric device (one leg of the nanogenerator) made of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods on the glass substrate. The effect of aluminum-doping on the Seebeck coefficient as an important figure-of-merit for thermoelectric performance has been extensively studied. The electrical characterization was performed to examine the quality of the nanorods' contacts. For 1% Al-doped ZnO nanorods on the silicon substrate, open circuit voltage of 0.28 mV and S.C. current of 3.5 μA were obtained. In these measurements, a constant temperature difference of 1 K between the top and bottom side of the nanorods was implemented. The Seebeck coefficient was found to be increased proportionally with the doping concentration.