Search results for "thermoelectric material"

High-pressure studies of topological insulators Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3, and Sb2Te3

2013

Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3, and Sb2Te3 are narrow bandgap semiconductors with tetradymite crystal structure (R-3m) which have been extensively studied along with their alloys due to their promising operation as thermoelectric materials in the temperature range between 300 and 500¿K. Studies on these layered semiconductors have increased tremendously in the last years since they have been recently predicted and demonstrated to behave as 3D topological insulators. In particular, a number of high-pressure studies have been done in the recent years in these materials. In this work we summarize the main results of the high-pressure studies performed in this family of semiconductors to date. In particular, w…

Crystal Structure of New Heusler Compounds

2009

Heusler compounds are promising materials in many fields of contemporary research. The spectrum of their possible applications ranges from magnetic and magneto-mechanical materials over semiconductors and thermoelectrics to superconductors. An important feature of the Heusler compounds is the possibility of controlling the valence electron concentration by partial substitution of elements. On the other hand, the properties also depend on the degree of ordering of the the crystal structure. In general, Heusler compounds crystallize in the Cu2MnAl-type structure but in many cases certain types of disorder are observed. In this paper a detailed description of the different types of disordered …

Crystal Structure of Heusler Compounds

2013

Heusler compounds are promising materials in many fields of contemporary research. The spectrum of their possible applications ranges from magnetic and magneto-mechanical materials over semiconductors and thermoelectrics to superconductors. An important feature of the Heusler compounds is the possibility of controlling the valence electron concentration by partial substitution of elements. On the other hand, the properties also depend on the degree of ordering of the crystal structure. In general, Heusler compounds crystallize in the Cu2MnAl-type structure but in many cases certain types of disorder are observed. In this chapter, a detailed description of the crystal structure as well as di…

Thermal potential of ion-exchange membranes and its application to thermoelectric power generation

2016

The low efficiency and high price of thermoelectric semiconductors has generated interest in unconventional forms of thermoelectric materials. In this article, ionic thermoelectricity has been studied with commercial ion-exchange membranes for different aqueous 1:1 electrolytes. The theory of thermal membrane potential has been derived taking into account the ionic heats of transport, the non-isothermal Donnan potentials, the temperature polarization, and the thermally-induced concentration polarization of the electrolyte. Also the generated thermoelectric power has been experimentally studied. The experiments show good agreement with the theory, and suggest ways for systematic improvement …

Thermo-elektrische Verbindungen. Strom aus Abwärme

2011

Thermoelektrische Materialien bieten die Moglichkeit, thermische Gradienten in elektrische Energie umzuwandeln um somit Abwarme aus verschiedensten Prozessen zur Energieerzeugung zu nutzen. In diesem Artikel werden die physikalischen Hintergrunde der thermoelektrischen Effekte beschrieben sowie Aufbau und Wirkungsgrad thermoelektrischer Generatoren erlautert. Um eine Brucke zwischen der Physik und Chemie in Festkorpern zu schlagen, werden die unterschiedlichen physikalischen Transportprozesse in Festkorpern mit Hilfe chemischer Konzepte erlautert. Anhand von Beispielen fur thermoelektrische Materialien werden die Ansatze zur Maximierung des thermoelektrischen Wirkungsgrades und der Einfluss…

Large thermoelectric figure of merit in hexagonal phase of 2D selenium and tellurium

2020

Effect of Isovalent Substitution on the Thermoelectric Properties of the Cu2ZnGeSe4–xSx Series of Solid Solutions

2013

Knowledge of structure–property relationships is a key feature of materials design. The control of thermal transport has proven to be crucial for the optimization of thermoelectric materials. We report the synthesis, chemical characterization, thermoelectric transport properties, and thermal transport calculations of the complete solid solution series Cu_2ZnGeSe_(4–x)S_x (x = 0–4). Throughout the substitution series a continuous Vegard-like behavior of the lattice parameters, bond distances, optical band gap energies, and sound velocities are found, which enables the tuning of these properties adjusting the initial composition. Refinements of the special chalcogen positions revealed a chang…

Resolving the true band gap of ZrNiSn half-Heusler thermoelectric materials

2015

N-type XNiSn (X = Ti, Zr, Hf) half-Heusler (HH) compounds possess excellent thermoelectric properties, which are believed to be attributed to their relatively high mobility. However, p-type XNiSn HH compounds have poor figures of merit, zT, compared to XCoSb compounds. This can be traced to the suppression of the magnitude of the thermopower at high temperatures. E_g = 2eS_(max)T_(max) relates the band gap to the thermopower peak. However, from this formula, one would conclude that the band gap of p-type XNiSn solid solutions is only one-third that of n-type XNiSn, which effectively prevents p-type XNiSn HHs from being useful thermoelectric materials. The study of p-type HH Zr_(1−x)Sc_xNiSn…

Thermoelectrics: From history, a window to the future

2019

Thermoelectricity offers a sustainable path to recover and convert waste heat into readily available electric energy, and has been studied for more than two centuries. From the controversy between Galvani and Volta on the Animal Electricity, dating back to the end of the XVIII century and anticipating Seebeck’s observations, the understanding of the physical mechanisms evolved along with the development of the technology. In the XIX century Ørsted clarified some of the earliest observations of the thermoelectric phenomenon and proposed the first thermoelectric pile, while it was only after the studies on thermodynamics by Thomson, and Rayleigh’s suggestion to exploit the Seebeck effect for …

Hybrid materials based on conductive polymers for energy harvesting

2022

Uno de los objetivos de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) para el Desarrollo Sostenible 2030 es obtener energía asequible y no contaminante. Por este motivo, se recomiendan encarecidamente las mejoras en la eficiencia energética y las fuentes de energía verde como soluciones óptimas para reducir las emisiones de dióxido de carbono y, por tanto, reducir la huella de carbono de nuestra sociedad. Las emisiones de carbono se han cuadriplicado desde 1950 y actualmente contribuyen en torno al 80 % de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. Como resultado de este cambio, el clima global sufre cambios en las tendencias globales de lluvia y una reducción en los casquetes polares. Co…