Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T08:32:08.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New Directions in Bulk Thermoelectric Materials Research: Synthesis of Nanoscale Precursors for “Bulk-Composite” Thermoelectric Materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Terry M. Tritt ,
Bo Zhang ,
Nick Gothard ,
Jian He ,
Xiaohua Ji ,
Daniel Thompson  and
Joe Kolis
Terry M. Tritt
Affiliation:
ttritt@clemson.edu, Clemson University, Physics and Astronomy, 118 Kinard Physics Lab, Clemson, SC, 29634, United States, 1-864-6564597, 1-864-6560805
Bo Zhang
Affiliation:
BZHANG@clemson.edu, Clemson University, Dept. of Physics, United States
Nick Gothard
Affiliation:
ngothar@clemson.edu, Clemson University, Dept. of Physics, United States
Jian He
Affiliation:
ttritt@clemson.edu, Clemson University, Dept. of Physics, United States
Xiaohua Ji
Affiliation:
xiaohji@CLEMSON.EDU, Clemson University, Dept. of Physics, United States
Daniel Thompson
Affiliation:
DrTLbT61@cs.com, Clemson University, Dept. of Physics, United States
Joe Kolis
Affiliation:
kjoseph@clemson.edu, Clemson University, Dept. of Chemistry, United States
Get access

Abstract

Over a decade ago it was predicted that nano-scaled thermoelectric (TE) materials might have superior properties to that of their bulk counterparts. Subsequently, a significant increase in the figure of merit, ZT (ZT > 2), has been reported for nano-scaled systems such as superlattice and quantum dot systems constituently based on those more commonly used bulk TE materials (e.g., Bi2Te3 and PbTe). However, the challenge remains to achieve these higher performance results in bulk materials in order to more rapidly incorporate them into standard TE devices. Recent theoretical work on boundary scattering of phonons in amorphous materials indicates that micron and submicron grains could be very beneficial in order to lower the lattice thermal conductivity and yet not deteriorate the electron mobility. The focus in this paper will be to highlight some of our new directions in bulk thermoelectric materials research. Thermoelectric materials are inherently difficult to characterize and these difficulties are magnified at high temperatures. Specific materials will be discussed, especially those bulk materials that exhibit favorable properties for potential high temperature power generation capabilities. One potentially fruitful research direction is to explore whether hybrid TE materials possess possible enhanced TE properties. These “engineered” hybrids include materials that exhibit sizes from on the order of a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers of the initial materials. These initial materials are then incorporated into a bulk structure. A discussion of some of the future research directions that we are pursuing is highlighted, including some bulk materials, which are based on nano-scaled or hybrid composites. The synthesis techniques and the synthesis results of many of these nano-scale precursor materials will be a primary focus of this paper.

Keywords

thermoelectricitynanoscalecomposite
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 886: Symposium F – Materials and Technologies fore Direct Thermal-to-Electric Energy Conversion , 2005 , 0886-F02-01
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1] Hicks, L. D. and Dresselhaus, M. S., Phys. Rev. B. 47, 12727, 1993.Google Scholar
[2] Venkatessasubmarian, R., et al. , Nature, 413, 597 (2001).Google Scholar
[3] Harman, T.C., Taylor, P.J., Walsh, M.P. and LaForge, B.E., Science, 297, 2229 (2002).Google Scholar
[4] Sharp, J. W., Poon, S. J. and Goldsmid, H. J., 19th Int. Conf on Thermoelectrics, ICT Symp. Proc. (2001), pg. 1 Google Scholar
[5] Singh, D., Proceedings of the Materials Research Society Fall 2001, Vol 691, p15, MRS Symposium Proceedings (2001) edited By Nolas, G., Johnson, D. and Mandrus, D..Google Scholar
[6] Ioffe, A. F., Semiconductor Thermoelements and Thermoelectric Cooling,, Infosearch London 1957 Google Scholar
[7] Slack, G. A., in Solid State Physics, 34, 1 (1979), ed. by Seitz, F., Turnbull, D., and Ehrenreich, H., Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
[8] Slack, G. A., New Materials and Performance Limits for Thermoelectric Cooling, p407, CRC Handbook on Thermoelectrics, edited: Rowe, D. M., CRC Press Boca Raton FL (1995)Google Scholar
[9] Nolas, G. S., Sharp, J. and Goldsmid, H. J., Thermoelectrics: Basic Principles and New Materials Development, Springer Verlag Publishing, Germany 2001.Google Scholar
[10] Tritt, Terry M., Thermoelectric Materials: Structure, Properties and Applications. Encyclopedia of Materials: Science and Technology Volume 10, pp 1–11, Edited by: Buschow, K H J et al. Elsevier Press LTD, Oxford, Major Reference Works, London, UK Google Scholar
[11] Tritt, Terry M., Mas Subramanian, MRS Bulletin Volume ##, Thermoelectric Materials and Overview (2006), in pressGoogle Scholar
[12] Hicks, L. D. and Dresselhaus, M. S., Phys. Rev. B. 47, 12727, 1993.Google Scholar
[13] Venkatessasubmarian, R., et al. , Nature, 413, 597 (2001).Google Scholar
[14] Harman, T.C., Taylor, P.J., Walsh, M.P. and LaForge, B.E., Science, 297, 2229 (2002).Google Scholar
[15] Hsu, Kuei Fang, Loo, Sim, Gao, Fu, Chen, Wei, Dyck, Jeffery S., Uher, Ctirad, Hogan, Tim, Polychroniadis, E. K. and Kanatzidis, M., Science, Vol 303, p 8181 (2004)Google Scholar
[16] Rowe, D.M. and Bhandari, C.M. Proc. 6th ICTEC (Cardiff, Wales) p 43, 1987.Google Scholar
[17] Nolas, G. S. and Goldsmid, H. J., Phys. Stat. Sol., 194, 271 (2002)Google Scholar
[18] Wood, C., Rep. Prog. Phys. 51, (1988) pp. 459–539.Google Scholar
[19] Iijima, S., Nature 354, 56 (1991).Google Scholar
[20] Remskar, M., Mrzel, A., Skraba, Z., Jesih, A., Ceh, M., Demsar, J., Stadelmann, P., Levy, F. and Mihailovic, D., Science, 292, 479 (2001) and references thereinGoogle Scholar
[21] Chen, Jun, Li, Suo-Long, Gao, Feng and Tao, Zhan-Liang, Chem. Mater, 15, 1012 (2003)Google Scholar
[22] Chen, Jun, Li, Suo-Long, Tao, Zhan-Liang and Gao, Feng, Chem. Comm, ??, 980 (2003)Google Scholar
[23] Magri, P., Boulanger, C., Lecuire, J. M., J. Mater. Chem. 6, 773 (1996)Google Scholar
[24] Fleurial, J. P., Borshcevsky, A., Ryan, M. A., Phillips, W., Kolawa, E., Kacisch, T., Ewell, R., 16Th ICT, Dresden, Germany, Aug. 30 -Sept. 1, (1997)Google Scholar
[25] Martin-Gozalez, M., Jeffrey Snyder, G., Prieto, Amy L., Gronsky, R., Sands, T. and Stacy, A. M., Nano-Letters 3, 973 (2003) and REFERENCES thereinGoogle Scholar
[26] Ji, X. H., Zhao, X. B., Zhang, Y. H., Sun, T., Ni, H. L. and Lu, B. H., Proc. of the 23rd ICT, Adelaide Australia, 25–29 July. 2004 Google Scholar
[27] Zhao, X.B., Ji, X.H., Zhang, Y.H., Zhu, T.J., Tu, J.P. and Zhang, X.B., Applied Physics Letters, 86: p. 062111 2005.Google Scholar
[28] Ji, X.H., Zhao, X.B., Zhang, Y.H., Lu, B.H. and Ni, H.L.. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2005. 387: p. 282–286.Google Scholar
[29] Ji, X.H., Syntheses and Properties of Nanostructured Bi2Te3 based Thermoelectric Materials, in Ph.D Dissertation of Mater. Phys. Chem. 2005.03, Zhejiang University: Hangzhou, 310027, China.Google Scholar
[30] Zhao, X. B., Ji, X.H., Zhang, Y.H. and Lu, B.H.. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2004. 368(1–2): p. 349–352.Google Scholar
[31] Ji, X.H., Zhao, X.B., Zhang, Y.H., Lu, B.H. and Ni, H.L.. Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc., 2004. 793: p. 21 Google Scholar
[32] Zhao, X.B., Sun, T., Zhu, T.J. and Tu., J.P. J. Mater. Chem., 2005. 15: p. 1621–1625.Google Scholar
[33] Zheng, Y.Y., Zhu, T.J., Zhao, X.B., Tu, J.P. and Cao, G.S.. Materials Letters, 2005. 59: p. 2886–2888.Google Scholar
[34] Ji, X.H., Zhao, X.B., Zhang, Y.H., Lu, B.H. and Ni, H.L.. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2005. 387: p. 282–286.Google Scholar
Ji, X.H., Zhao, X.B., Zhang, Y.H., Lu, B.H. and Ni, H.L.. Materials Letters, 2005. 59: p. 682–685.Google Scholar
Zhao, X.B., Zhang, Y.H. and Ji, X.H.. Inorganic Chemistry Communications, 2004. 7(3): p. 386–388.Google Scholar
[35] Gothard, N., Zhang, B., He, J., and Tritt, Terry M., CVD Growth of Nanostructures from Bi2Te3 , MRS Proceedings Vol. #, p xxx Fall 2005 Meeting, Boston MA (2005), edited by Yang, J. et al. Google Scholar
[36] Sashchiuk, A., Amirav, L., bashouti, M., Krueger, M., Sivan, U. and Lifshitz, E., Nano-Letters, 4, 159 (2004)Google Scholar
[37] Xie, Jian, Zhao, Xin-bing, Mi, Jian-Li, Cao, Gao-Shao, Tu, Jiang-Ping, Journal of Zhejiang Univ., Science,(JZUS), Letters, 5, 1504 (2005)Google Scholar
[38] Xie, J., Zhao, X.B., Cao, G.S., Zhao, M.J., Su, S.F.. Journal of Power Sources, 140 (2005), p.350–354 Google Scholar