Thermoelectric characteristics of flexible reduced graphene oxide/silver selenide nanowire composites prepared by a facile vacuum filtration process

The reduced graphene oxide/silver selenide nanowire (rGO/Ag₂Se NW) composite powders were fabricated via a wet chemical approach, and then flexible rGO/Ag₂Se NW composite film was prepared by a facile vacuum filtration method combined with cold-pressing treatment. A highest power factor of 228.88 μW·m^-1·K^-2 was obtained at 331 K for the cold-pressed rGO/Ag₂Se NW composite film with 0.01 wt% rGO. The rGO/Ag₂Se NW composite film revealed superior flexibility as the power factor retained 94.62% after bending for 500 times with a bending radius of 4 mm, which might be due to the interwoven network structures of Ag₂Se NWs and pliability of rGO as well as nylon membrane. These results demonstrated that the GO/Ag₂Se NW composite film has a potential for preparation of flexible thermoelectric devices.