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DOC-Stabilized PVAc/MWCNTs Composites for Higher Thermoelectric Performance

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Energy Technology 2019

Part of the book series: The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series ((MMMS))

Abstract

Novel technologies of energy generation are being developed nowadays to keep pace with the increasing energy crisis. Thermoelectric materials have the capability of harvesting waste heat and efficiently converting into useful electrical current. In this work, a commercial polymer is developed to be adopted for thermal electrical energy conversion. Low thermal conductivity Polyvinyl Acetate is used to host multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) with different weight percentages (10–70) wt% with the addition of semiconducting Sodium Deoxycholate (DOC) as a nanofiller stabilizer. DOC was found to have a dual role in improving the dispersion of the nanotubes and stabilizing the composite, and hence resulting in higher thermoelectric performance. The composite with 70 wt% MWNTs showed the highest electrical conductivity of 171.7 S/m at 100 ℃ while the 50 wt% composite recorded the greatest power factor of 0.008 µW/mK2 at the same temperature.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank their colleagues Abdelrahman Saleh Elmofty and Karamullah Mohamed Eisawi, who were part of the research group working on another material. The authors also wish to thank Dr. Nageh Allam and the Energy Material Lab (EML) at School of Science and Engineering, the American University in Cairo (AUC), where the thermoelectric characterization and SEM work was conducted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, 12316, Egypt

    Hussein Badr, Mahmoud Sorour, Shadi Foad Saber, Iman S. El-Mahallawi & Fawzi A. Elrefaie

  2. Centre for Renewable Energy, British University in Egypt, Cairo, 11837, Egypt

    Iman S. El-Mahallawi

Authors
  1. Hussein Badr
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  2. Mahmoud Sorour
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  3. Shadi Foad Saber
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  4. Iman S. El-Mahallawi
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  5. Fawzi A. Elrefaie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Iman S. El-Mahallawi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nucor Castrip Arkansas, Blytheville, AR, USA

    Tao Wang

  2. Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Xiaobo Chen

  3. Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA

    Donna Post Guillen

  4. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    Lei Zhang

  5. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Ziqi Sun

  6. Northeastern University, Shenyamg, China

    Cong Wang

  7. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Clayton South, VIC, Australia

    Nawshad Haque

  8. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    John A. Howarter

  9. IND LLC, South Jordan, UT, USA

    Neale R Neelameggham

  10. Al-Isra University, Amman, Jordan

    Shadia Ikhmayies

  11. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    York R. Smith

  12. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Leili Tafaghodi

  13. LG Fuel Cell Systems, North Canton, OH, USA

    Amit Pandey

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© 2019 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

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Badr, H., Sorour, M., Saber, S.F., El-Mahallawi, I.S., Elrefaie, F.A. (2019). DOC-Stabilized PVAc/MWCNTs Composites for Higher Thermoelectric Performance. In: Wang, T., et al. Energy Technology 2019. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06209-5_29

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