Graphene slurry and method for the fabrication of a flexible thermoelectric generator therefrom

A method for producing a graphene slurry (1) comprising the following steps:

• obtaining a filtered product containing expanded graphite from a graphitic material by an expansion process;
• and
• obtaining a graphene slurry (1) from the filtered product containing expanded graphite obtained in the previous step by a dispersion process;
• wherein the graphene slurry (1) includes a solid part comprising few-layer graphene (6), and a mixture of water and a solvent;
• wherein the few-layer graphene (6) has a concentration in a range between 80% and 99%;
• and
• wherein the mixture of water and solvent includes water in a range between 10% v/v and 40% v/v, and solvent in a range between 60% v/v and 90% v/v.

A method for producing a thermoelectric device (2) comprising the following steps:

• providing a graphene slurry (1);
• providing a support material having a first surface (4A) and a second surface (4B);
• and
• depositing at least one layer of the graphene slurry (1) on the first surface (4A) of the support material by means of a deposition process to obtain a thermoelectric device (2);
• wherein the graphene slurry (1) includes a solid part comprising few-layer graphene (6) and a mixture of water and a solvent;
• wherein the solid part comprises graphene including few-layer graphene (6) with a concentration in a range between 80% and 99%;
• and
• wherein the mixture of water and solvent includes water in a range between 10% v/v and 40% v/v, and solvent in a range between 60% v/v and 90% v/v.

A method for producing flexible thermoelectric generator comprising the following steps:

• providing a thermoelectric device (2) comprising a support layer (4) having a first surface (4A) and a second surface (4B), a layer of a sealing material (5) disposed on the first surface (4A) of the support material, and a layer including few-layer graphene (6) with a concentration in a range between 80% and 99%;
• disposing a first conductive element (7A) on the at least one layer including few-layer graphene (6) by an electrical coupling process;
• and
• disposing a second conductive element (7B) on the second surface (4B) of the support layer (4) by an electrical coupling process.