Combination of PVA with graphene to improve the seebeck coefficient for thermoelectric generator applications

Ultrasensitive thermoelectric (TE) materials are essential for the next generation of self-powered electronic devices. In this work, a graphene-based TE generator was fabricated. For 50 to 1000 graphene layers the average Seebeck coefficient was 90 μV/K. We also report improvement of the Seebeck coefficient by use of a hybrid material containing 10% poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and 90% graphene oxide prepared and tested under the same conditions. The results show that the Seebeck coefficient is improved by an average of 30% compared with graphene alone. Because the fabrication process is facile, scalable, and cost effective, it could also be applicable to other fields of science and engineering.