Chemistry Physics And Materials Science Of Thermoelectric Materials

This volume: Chemistry, Physics and Materials Science of Thermoelectric Materials: Beyond Bismuth Telluride contains a series of topical articles that were presented as invited lectures by prominent leaders in this field at a workshop held in Traverse City, Michigan in the summer of 2002. These articles place the state of the art, regarding design principles, candidate materials and systems and current advances in context and should serve as a useful source of insights into this field for both beginning students and practitioners alike.

The first book of its kind?providing comprehensive information on oxide thermoelectrics This timely book explores the latest research results on the physics and materials science of oxide thermoelectrics at all scales. It covers the theory, design and properties of thermoelectric materials as well as fabrication technologies for devices and their applications. Written by three distinguished materials scientists, Oxide Thermoelectric Materials reviews: the fundamentals of electron and phonon transport; modeling of thermoelectric modules and their optimization; synthetic processes, structures, and properties of thermoelectric materials such as Bi2Te3- and skutterudite-based materials and Si-Ge alloys. In addition, the book provides a detailed description of the construction of thermoelectric devices and their applications. -Contains fundamentals and applications of thermoelectric materials and devices, and discusses their near-future perspectives -Introduces new, promising materials and technologies, such as nanostructured materials, perovskites, and composites -Paves the way for increased conversion efficiencies of oxides -Authored by well-known experts in the field of thermoelectrics Oxide Thermoelectric Materials is a well-organized guidebook for graduate students involved in physics, chemistry, or materials science. It is also helpful for researchers who are getting involved in thermoelectric research and development.

As concerns with the efficient use of energy resources, and the minimization of environmental damage have come to the fore, there has been a renewed interest in the role that thermoelectric devices could play in generating electricity from waste heat, enabling cooling via refrigerators with no moving parts, and many other more specialized applications. The main problem in realizing this ambition is the rather low efficiency of such devices for general applications. This book deals with the proceedings of a workshop addressed that problems by reviewing the latest experimental and theoretical work on suitable materials for device applications and by exploring various strategies that might increase their efficiency. The proceedings cover a broad range of approaches, from the experimental work of fabricating new compounds through to theoretical work in characterizing and understanding their properties. The effects of strong electron correlation, disorder, the proximity to metal-insulator transitions, the properties of layered composite materials, and the introduction of voids or cages into the structure to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity are all explored as ways of enhancing the efficiency of their use in thermoelectric devices.

Thermoelectric Materials and Devices summarizes the latest research achievements over the past 20 years of thermoelectric material and devices, most notably including new theory and strategies of thermoelectric materials design and the new technology of device integration. The book's author has provided a bridge between the knowledge of basic physical/chemical principles and the fabrication technology of thermoelectric materials and devices, providing readers with research and development strategies for high performance thermoelectric materials and devices. It will be a vital resource for graduate students, researchers and technologists working in the field of energy conversion and the development of thermoelectric devices. Discusses the new theory and methods of thermoelectric materials design Combines scientific principles, along with synthesis and fabrication technologies in thermoelectric materials Presents the design optimization and interface technology for thermoelectric devices Introduces thermoelectric polymers and organic-inorganic thermoelectric composites

This book provides an overview on nanostructured thermoelectric materials and devices, covering fundamental concepts, synthesis techniques, device contacts and stability, and potential applications, especially in waste heat recovery and solar energy conversion. The contents focus on thermoelectric devices made from nanomaterials with high thermoelectric efficiency for use in large scale to generate megawatts electricity. Covers the latest discoveries, methods, technologies in materials, contacts, modules, and systems for thermoelectricity. Addresses practical details of how to improve the efficiency and power output of a generator by optimizing contacts and electrical conductivity. Gives tips on how to realize a realistic and usable device or module with attention to large scale industry synthesis and product development. Prof. Zhifeng Ren is M. D. Anderson Professor in the Department of Physics and the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston. Prof. Yucheng Lan is an associate professor in Morgan State University. Prof. Qinyong Zhang is a professor in the Center for Advanced Materials and Energy at Xihua University of China.

How can you design good thermoelectric materials? This book covers thermoelectric material concepts and synthesis techniques in particular focusing methods for enhancing current materials designs to achieve the greatest thermoelectric efficiencies. This book is ideal for researchers and advanced students of materials science, physics, and energy.

This book summarises the significant progress made in organic thermoelectric materials, focusing on effective routes to minimize thermal conductivity and maximize power factor.

Environmental and economic concerns have significantly spurred the search for novel, high-performance thermoelectric materials for energy conversion in small-scale power generation and refrigeration devices. This quest has been mainly fueled by the introduction of new designs and the synthesis of new materials. In fact, good thermoelectric materials must simultaneously exhibit extreme properties: they must have very low thermal conductivity values and both electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient high values as well. Since these transport coefficients are interrelated, the required task of optimization is a formidable one. Thus, thermoelectric materials provide a full-fledged example of interdisciplinary research connecting fields such as solid-state physics, materials science engineering, and structural chemistry and raise the need of gaining proper knowledge of the role played by the electronic structure in the thermal and electrical transport properties of solid matter. This book presents a detailed, updated introduction to the field of thermoelectric materials in a tutorial way, focusing on both basic notions and fundamental questions and illustrating the abstract concepts with suitable application examples. It discusses thermoelectric effects, the transport coefficients and their mutual relations, the efficiency of thermoelectric devices, and some notions on the characterization and related industry standards. It also reviews the two basic strategies for optimizing the thermoelectric performance of materials: the control of thermal conductivity and the power factor enhancement. It discusses structural complexity approach, focusing on complex enough lattice structures with heavy atoms in the unit-cell or nanostructured systems characterized by low-dimensional effects, and introducing different kinds of bulk materials of growing chemical and structural complexity. It also discusses the electronic structure engineering approach that focuses on obtaining a guiding principle, in terms of an electronic band structure tailoring process, and describes the role played by the electronic structure in the thermoelectric performance of different materials.