Morphology-engineered spider silk–carbon nanotube composites for high-performance and sustainable thermoelectric energy harvesting
Journal
Chemical Engineering Journal
Journal Volume
524
Start Page
Article number:169375
ISSN
1385-8947
Date Issued
2025-11-15
Author(s)
Hsu, Chih-Wei
Shen, Ming-Yan
Wang, Yi-Jen
Hong, Shao-Huan
Liu, Yu
Abstract
Bio-based thermoelectric composites often face intrinsic challenges in achieving precise interfacial control and structural integration, which limit further optimization of thermoelectric performance. Here, two engineered variants—hydrophobic-rich R1 and hydrophilic-rich R2—were integrated with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to investigate how protein–CNT interfacial interactions regulate composite morphology and microstructure, thereby enhancing thermoelectric performance. Ethanol-induced structural ordering generated distinct morphologies that enhanced the Seebeck coefficient and suppressed thermal conductivity. The resulting composites exhibited figure-of-merit (ZT) values of 0.38 and 0.33 for CNT/R1 and CNT/R2, respectively. Notably, the optimized CNT/R2-based thermoelectric generator (TEG) demonstrated an energy conversion efficiency of 8.2%. This work reveals how bio-nano interfacial design governs energy transport and offers a scalable, bio-based strategy for building high-performance thermoelectric composites tailored for next-generation wearable energy harvesting.
Subjects
Bio-based energy harvesting composites
Bio-nano interface
Carbon nanotubes
Spider silk
SDGs
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Type
journal article