Nanocomposites to Enhance Zt in Thermoelectrics
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1044-U02-04
NANOCOMPOSITES TO ENHANCE ZT IN THERMOELECTRICS Mildred S Dresselhaus1,2, Gang Chen3, Zhifeng Ren4, Jean-Pierre Fleurial5, Pawan Gogna5, Ming Y Tang1, Daryoosh Vashaee3, Hohyun Lee3, Xiaowei Wang4, Giri Joshi4, Gaohua Zhu4, Dezhi Wang4, Richard Blair6, Sabah Bux7, and Richard Kaner7 1 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 2 Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 3 Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 4 Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467 5 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, 91109 6 Chemistry, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816 7 Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
ABSTRACT The concept of using “self-assembled” and “force-engineered” nanostructures to enhance the thermoelectric figure of merit relative to bulk homogeneous and composite materials is presented in general terms. Specific application is made to the Si-Ge system for use in power generation at high temperature. The scientific advantages of the nanocomposite approach for the simultaneous increase in the power factor and decrease of the thermal conductivity are emphasized along with the practical advantages of having bulk samples for property measurements and a straightforward path to scale-up materials synthesis and integration of nanostructured materials into thermoelectric cooling and power generation devices. 1. OVERVIEW During the fifteen years after the publication of the first papers on low dimensional or nanostructured thermoelectric materials [1, 2], the thermoelectrics field has greatly expanded in numbers of papers published and has increasingly attracted a multi-disciplinary science and
engineering community into fundamental and applied materials research. Many of these new entrants are working toward both accelerating the advances in the performance of thermoelectric materials and in speeding up their commercial exploitation. These are two goals for the research agenda discussed in this review. Concomitant with the large increase of interest by the research community that is reflected, for example, by the growth of the attendance and the number of papers presented at the 2007 MRS Fall Symposium on Thermoelectric Power Generation, there has also been a large expansion in the sales of commercial thermoelectric products, as documented by a strong and successful entry of thermoelectrics into the automotive market through thermoelectric cooling (or heating) devices. As reported by Lon Bell at the 2007 Industrial Physics Forum held in Seattle [3], over one million cooling (heating) thermoelectricbased car seat units were sold in 2007. In the case of hybrid vehicles (where the fuel consumption per kilometer traveled is monitored), studies showed that the use of thermoelectric car seats for cooling significantly reduced the use of air conditioning, resulting in a greater distance traveled per liter of gasoline
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