Energy harvesting from boy heat could represent an attractive technology for powering a variety of wearable sensors. Thermoelectric devices could be useful for personal energy harvesting. However, traditional thermoelectric energy harvesting devices are suffered from low efficiency, lack of flexibility or wearability, or the need for bulky heat sinks. Here, we developed a strategy to make flexible thermoelectric devices that are flexible, and more importantly, works at high efficiency without resorting to any heat sinks. The device was enabled by optimal thermal design and a novel approach to make flexible device from high-performance rigid inorganic thermoelectric materials.
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