Screen-Printed, Pure Carbon-Black Thermocouple Fabrication and Seebeck Coefficients

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 19; no. 2; p. 403
• Main Authors: Offenzeller, Christina, Knoll, Marcel, Jakoby, Bernhard, Hilber, Wolfgang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 19.01.2019; MDPI AG
• Subjects: carbon black; screen-printed; Seebeck coefficient; thermocouple; Seebeck coefficient; carbon black; thermocouple; screen-printed
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s19020403

Thermocouples classically consist of two metals or semiconductor components that are joined at one end, where temperature is measured. Carbon black is a low-cost semiconductor with a Seebeck coefficient that depends on the structure of the carbon particles. Different carbon black screen-printing inks generally exhibit different Seebeck coefficients, and two can therefore be combined to realize a thermocouple. In this work, we used a set of four different commercially available carbon-black screen-printing inks to print all-carbon-black thermocouples. The outputs of these thermocouples were characterized and their Seebeck coefficients determined. We found that the outputs of pure carbon-black thermocouples are reasonably stable, linear, and quantitatively comparable to those of commercially available R- or S-type thermocouples. It is thus possible to fabricate thermocouples by an easily scalable, cost-efficient process that combines two low-cost materials.