A high-efficient photo-thermoelectric coupling generator of cuprous iodide

Abstract

Thermoelectric (TE) energy converters have attracted great interest due to their maintenance-free, long-life, and high-reliability properties. However, improving the output power of TE devices remains a huge challenge. In this work, a high-efficient photo-TE coupling generator based on cuprous iodide (CuI) film is proposed to increase the output power of TE devices. Here, CuI film was prepared by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. The influence of the photovoltaic (PV) effect on the TE output voltage of CuI film was investigated by an analysis of the experimental results. The results showed that the output voltage of the photo-TE coupling generator had a maximum increment of 83.47% at 343 K compared to the sum of TE and PV voltages. The increase in the output voltage was mainly because of the PV effect rather than the TE effect, while the photo-generated electrons also induce a considerable change in the TE figure of merit. Hence, the strategy proposed in this work might be a potential approach to further improve the output performance of other TE materials.