Bifunctional thermoelectric tube made of tilted multilayer material as an alternative to standard heat exchangers

Enormously large amount of heat produced by human activities is now mostly wasted into the environment without use. To realize a sustainable society, it is important to develop practical solutions for waste heat recovery. Here, we demonstrate that a tubular thermoelectric device made of tilted multilayer of Bi(0.5)Sb(1.5)Te(3)/Ni provides a promising solution. The Bi(0.5)Sb(1.5)Te(3)/Ni tube allows tightly sealed fluid flow inside itself, and operates in analogy with the standard shell and tube heat exchanger. We show that it achieves perfect balance between efficient heat exchange and high-power generation with a heat transfer coefficient of 4.0 kW/m(2)K and a volume power density of 10 kW/m(3) using low-grade heat sources below 100°C. The Bi(0.5)Sb(1.5)Te(3)/Ni tube thus serves as a power generator and a heat exchanger within a single unit, which is advantageous for developing new cogeneration systems in factories, vessels, and automobiles where cooling of excess heat is routinely carried out.