Ambient Energy Harvesting Using Thermoelectric QDs

Breakthroughs in energy harvesting hold promise for “deploy-and-forget” wireless sensor networks and other distributed or portable power applications. In this regard, efficient energy harvesting from ubiquitous temperature gradients by means of silent, maintenance-free thermoelectric generators has been a long-standing goal.

This project focuses on fabricating paper-based thermoelectric generators by merging naturally abundant cellulose papers with thermoelectric QDs.

Leveraged by paper’s high flexibility and inherently low thermal conductivity, these low-cost paper devices have the potential to efficiently utilize heat available in natural and man-made environments by maximizing the thermal contact to heat sources that often have arbitrary geometries (e.g. pipes and human bodies).

Dong-Kyun Ko
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
dong.k.ko@njit.edu