Abstract
Thermoelectric generators offer a promising approach for harvesting waste heat from both natural and human-made sources, enabling sustainable electricity generation. While geometric design plays a crucial role in optimizing device performance, conventional approaches remain confined to simple configurations, limiting efficiency improvements. This constraint arises from the complex interplay of multiphysical interactions and diverse thermal environments, which complicates structural optimization. Here, we introduce a universal design framework that integrates topology optimization (TO) with additive manufacturing to systematically derive high-efficiency thermoelectric 3D architectures. By formulating an optimization problem to maximize power generation efficiency, our approach explores an unprecedentedly large design space, optimizing the geometries of thermoelectric materials across diverse thermal boundary conditions and material properties. The resulting TO-derived geometries consistently outperform conventional cuboids, demonstrating significant efficiency gains. Beyond in-silico studies, we provide theoretical insights and experimental validation, confirming the feasibility of our design approach. Our study offers a transformative way for enhancing thermoelectric power generation, with broad implications for next-generation sustainable energy technologies.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the published article and its Supplementary Information. The source data underlying the figures of the Main Text are provided within the “Source Data” file. Source data are provided with this paper.
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The COMSOL Multiphysics codes generated for this work have been uploaded to a public repository at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18410821.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Mid-Career Researcher Program (RS-2022-NR070604) and Nano & Material Technology Development Program (RS-2024-00449743) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
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J.L., S.E.Y., and S.C. contributed equally to this work. J.L., S.E.Y., S.C., H.C., and J.S.S. designed the experiments, analysed the data, and wrote the paper. J.L., H.L., and H.C. performed the topology optimization studies. J.L., S.E.Y., S.C., H.H., K.K., and Y.E.P. carried out the fabrication and measurement of the devices. J.L., H.H.L., and D.W.S. performed the mechanical durability tests and analysed the results. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Lee, J., Yang, S.E., Choo, S. et al. Topology optimization of thermoelectric generator for maximum power efficiency. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69901-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69901-3
