Solvent-assisted synthesis of Ag₂Se and Ag₂S nanoparticles on carbon fabric for enhanced thermoelectric performance

The challenge of developing low-cost, highly flexible, and high-performance thermoelectric (TE) materials persists due to the low thermoelectric efficiency of conducting polymers and the inflexibility of inorganic materials. In this study, we successfully integrated Ag₂Se and Ag₂S with highly conductive carbon fabric (CF) to produce a flexible thermoelectric material. A facile one-step solvothermal method was employed to synthesize the Ag₂Se-CF and Ag₂S-CF, which were then subjected to X-ray analysis to confine the phase formation of Ag₂Se and Ag₂S on the carbon fabric. The analysis revealed that Ag₂Se and Ag₂S nanoparticles were tightly packed on the surface of carbon fabric, and compositional analysis confirmed the interaction between the material and carbon fabric. The thermoelectric properties of Ag₂Se-CF and Ag₂S-CF were significantly altered due to carrier concentration and mobility variations, resulting in a low power factor of 6.7 μW/mK² for Ag₂Se-CF and a high-power factor of 24 μW/mK² at 373 K for Ag₂S-CF. The growth of Ag₂Se-CF and Ag₂S-CF on carbon fabric led to an enhancement in their thermoelectric properties. Further, TE legs were fabricated using the Ag₂Se-CF (p-type) and Ag₂S-CF (n-type), and the fabricated legs exhibited an output voltage of ∼20 mV to ∼86.65 mV at a temperature gradient (ΔT) of 3-8 K. This work represents a cutting-edge approach to the fabrication of high-performance, wearable thermoelectric devices.