Performance analysis and optimization of the rough-contact Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric cooler via metallized layers

Abstract

We use the numerical simulation to investigate an optimized metallized barrier layer for enhancing the performance of the Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric cooler (TEC). The maximal cooling capacity of 15.627 W and 5.646 W has been obtained under perfect and rough contact TEC. For the actual rough contact TEC, the Ag layer has the best cooling performance among conventional materials such as Ag, Ni, Ti, Co and Pd. The maximal cooling capacity (Qc max) for the rough contact TEC with Ag layer is 84.5% of the perfect contact TEC, which is 2.33 times of the rough contact TEC without any barrier layers. Subsequently, the roughness slope of the TEC and the pressure applied on the TEC have been researched. The Qc max can achieve 90% of the perfect contact TEC when the slope of the roughness is higher than 0.8. Under pressure over 3000 kPa, the Qc max can reach 91% of the perfect contact TEC. For practical production of Bi2Te3-based TEC can introduce Ag as the metallized layer to reduce the contact resistance and improve the cooling performance.

Keywords

• Bi2Te3-Based thermoelectric cooler
• Metallized layer
• Finite-element simulation
• Performance of the thermoelectric cooler