Thermoelectric Characteristics of InAs Nanowire Networks Directly Grown on Flexible Plastic Substrates

Abstract

III-V semiconductor nanowires have shown promise for thermoelectric applications, but their use in practical devices has conventionally been hindered by complex fabrication processes and device integration. Here, we characterize the thermoelectric properties of InAs nanowire networks directly grown on flexible polyimide plastic. The n-type nanowire networks achieve a high room-temperature Seebeck coefficient of -110.8 μV K-1 and electrical conductivity of 41 S cm-1, resulting in a thermoelectric power factor of 50.4 μW m-1 K-2. Moreover, the nanowire networks show remarkable mechanical flexibility with a relative change in resistance below 0.01 at bending radii below 5.2 mm. We further establish the thermoelectric performance of InAs nanowire networks on plastic using a facile proof-of-concept thermoelectric generator producing a maximum power of 0.44 nW at a temperature gradient of 5 K. The findings indicate that direct growth of III-V nanowire networks on plastic substrates shows promise for the development of flexible thermoelectrics applications.