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Realizing High Thermoelectric Conversion Efficiency in p-type AgSbTe<sub>2</sub> Alloys

ORAL

Abstract

Thermoelectric generators enable the direct conversion between heat and electricity, having applications both for refrigeration and power generation. The flourishing growth of thermoelectric materials with high figures of merit zT in the last decade certainly requires parallel enhancement on conversion efficiency of thermoelectric devices. Herein, the thermoelectric performance of p-type AgSbTe2-based materials is optimized though doping with S, to reach an outstanding maximum figure of merit zTmax of 2.0 and an average ZTave of 1.3 over the temperature range 300 - 670 K. The exceptional performance arises from the highly improved power factor, which comes from optimized carrier density and vastly improved Seebeck coefficient enabled by the contribution of band flattening near the top of valence band. This material is used to fabricate single-leg thermoelectric modules reaching record energy conversion efficiencies up to 10%. These results highlight an effective strategy to engineer high-performance thermoelectric material for efficient waste heat recovery in medium temperature range.

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Publication: Thermoelectric Performance of Surface Engineered Copper Telluride Nanomaterials

Presenters

  • YU ZHANG

    The Pennsylvania State University

Authors

  • YU ZHANG

    The Pennsylvania State University

  • Bed Poudel

    Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Penn State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

  • Amin Nozariasbmarz

    Pennsylvania State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

  • WENJIE LI

    Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Penn State University, The Pennsylvania State University

  • Andreu Cabot

    Catalonia Institute for Energy Research

  • Shashank Priya

    Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Penn State University, Penn State, The Pennsylvania University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.