摘要 |
<p>Disclosed are integrity-enhanced thermoelectric devices and methods of their preparation. Such devices have the following characteristics: (1) there is, on average, no greater than about 10% incidence of function loss (failure) of the device on application to the device of a substantial impact or distortion force or corrosion exposure, and (2) the devices have at least about 85% of the thermal performance of thermoelectric devices without integrity enhancement (i.e., thermal conductivity across the integrity-enhanced devices is significantly less than 0.0021 Cal-Cm/Cm<2> Sec DEG C, and is less than or equal to about 0.0015 Cal-Cm/Cm<2> Sec DEG C.; empirically expressed as maintenance of at least a 40 DEG C temperature differential over the intra-plate distance which is about 3/16 to about 1/4 of an inch.). Integrity enhancement techniques are described, including the method of embedding components of standard thermoelectric devices in syntactic foam materials, such as those formed of resins and balloon elements. <IMAGE></p> |