Thermoelectric Power Factor of Boron‐Doped Carbon Nanotubes Reinforced Cementitious Composites

Abstract

In recent years, fossil fuel emissions and human activities have generated a lot of heat energy, causing environmental temperatures to rise. Thermoelectric cementitious composites that use temperature difference power generation to achieve the transformation of thermal and electrical energy can achieve a reduction in urban environmental temperature and alleviate resource depletion. However, the low thermoelectric conversion efficiency at this stage restricts its development. Herein, boron‐doped carbon nanotubes (B‐CNTs) are proposed to improve the thermoelectric properties of cement materials by doping boron into carbon nanotubes through the thermal diffusion method. At H3BO3: CNTs = 1:4, the synthesized B‐CNTs improve the Seebeck coefficient, which is mainly due to the increase in defect content and the appearance of additional phases around the Fermi energy level, leading to enhanced thermoelectric properties due to the increase in carrier scattering intensity. The thermoelectric optimum of the cement matrix composite with 7.0 wt% B‐CNTs content is 1.1 × 10−4, which is three times higher than that of the undoped carbon nanotube. This article provides a research idea to modify the thermoelectric properties of the material by doping the carbon material.