As the global elderly population increases, further medical attention is required. In turn, this medical demand will require more reliable and energy-efficient medical devices such as therapeutic wraps and blankets. These materials can benefit from flexible wearable thermoelectric materials, which can generate cold or heat from electricity with minimal discomfort on the patient. However, little is known on how deformation and strain affect their efficiency.
Therefore, this project has focused on finding the deformations that increase the thermoelectric efficiency of state-of-the-art materials. These materials are investigated with computer simulations since they have a thickness of a few nanometres, which makes an experimental study much lengthier and more expensive.
This action is important to society because it shows that computer simulations can screen which of the newly-discovered two-dimensional materials have a significant potential to build thermoelectric devices. Subsequently, this project is not only aimed at policymakers and medical doctors to show them the benefits of fundamental research on thermoelectric materials, but also at the scientific community and patent engineers to provide cutting-edge results to guide them in building the next generation of medical devices.