The past decades have witnessed surging demand for wearable electronics, for which thermoelectrics (TEs) are considered a promising self-charging technology, as they are capable of converting skin heat into electricity directly. Bi₂Te₃ is the most-used TE material at room temperature, due to a high zT of ~1. However, it is different to integrate Bi₂Te₃ for wearable TEs owing to its intrinsic rigidity. Bi₂Te₃ could be flexible when made thin enough, but this implies a small electrical and thermal load, thus severely restricting the power output. Herein, we developed a Bi₂Te₃/nickel foam (NiFoam) composite film through solvothermal deposition of Bi₂Te₃ nanoplates into porous NiFoam. Due to the mesh structure and ductility of Ni Foam, the film, with a thickness of 160 μm, exhibited a high figure of merit for flexibility, 0.016, connoting higher output. Moreover, the film also revealed a high tensile strength of 12.7 ± 0.04 MPa and a maximum elongation rate of 28.8%. In addition, due to the film’s high electrical conductivity and enhanced Seebeck coefficient, an outstanding power factor of 850 μW m⁻¹ K⁻² was achieved, which is among the highest ever reported. A module fabricated with five such n-type legs integrated electrically in series and thermally in parallel showed an output power of 22.8 nW at a temperature gap of 30 K. This work offered a cost-effective avenue for making highly flexible TE films for power supply of wearable electronics by intercalating TE nanoplates into porous and meshed-structure materials.

High-performance coatings originated in ingenious coating designs and advanced preparation techniques are expected to fulfill imperious demands in propulsion, bearings and mechanical seals, etc in marine systems for seawater lubrication. In this work, TiSiCN nanocomposite coatings were deposited by high power impulse magnetron sputtering at a power of 4–8 kW. As power is increased, TiSiCN coatings possess nanocrystalline (TiN, TiC, TiCN)/amorphous (Si₃N₄, SiC, sp²-C) nanocomposite structure without distinctly preferred orientation. The highest hardness (H) of 43 GPa and effective Young’s modulus (E*) of 360 GPa were achieved at 8 kW, while the highest H/E* of 0.123 and H³/E*² of 0.61 appear at 7 kW due to refined nano-grains, uniform distribution, high surface/interface integrity and fully dense microstructure. Rockwell C adhesion level increased from HF2 at 4 kW to HF1 at 8 kW. TiSiCN coatings with high H, H/E*, H³/E*² and adhesion exhibit high open circuit potential of −0.07 V, low friction coefficient of 0.25 and specific wear rate of 4.78 × 10⁻⁵ mm³ N⁻¹ m⁻¹, resulting from mild abrasive wear without the occurrence of pitting corrosion in 3.5 wt.% NaCl aqueous solution. Moreover, cycling tribocorrosion tests revealed that passive films possess strong abilities of regeneration and self-repairation on sliding contact surface.