A review on Silicide based materials for thermoelectric applications (original) (raw)
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Development of Thermoelectric Materials Consisting Solely of Environmental Friendly Elements
MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS, 2016
A guiding principle for developing practical thermoelectric materials was constructed on the basis of simulations of thermoelectric properties using linear response theory. Al-Mn-Si C54-phase, Al-Mn-Si C40-phase and higher manganese silicide (HMS), all of which consist solely of cheap, environmentally friendly elements, were selected using the guiding principle. The validity of the strategy to develop practical thermoelectric material was clearly proved by our newly prepared HMS possessing a dimensionless gure of merit exceeding unity.
State-of-the-art of Thermoelectric Materials - Processing, Properties and Applications
Development of new thermoelectric materials has been rapid in past few years. The goal of the work appears to be to reduce the thermal conductivity while remaining the electrical conductivity at relatively high level. Different techniques have been demonstrated in laboratory scale utilizing nanoscale tailoring. The recent development in nanoscale tailoring has based mainly on utilization of silicon. However, silicon can not be considered to be a good thermoelectric material due to its low ZT value. Thus, one can assume that better performance can be achieved by finding more appropriate materials. Also the problem of manufacturing the nanostructures in industrial scale still prevails. Thus, it is suggested that the development work should be focused on development of new efficient thermoelectric materials suitable for mass manufacturing utilizing nanoscience.
ACS applied energy materials, 2020
We developed a large scale batch synthesis process for the high performance thermoelectric material Mg 2 Si 0.3 Sn 0.67 Bi 0.03. An in house liquid−solid reactor was employed to produce ingots of uniform and consistent composition. The ingot material was crushed and sintered under high pressure and temperature into a large 10.2 × 10.2 × 1.0 cm 3 piece for the physical property measurements. Relevant thermoelectric properties were measured on parallelepiped pieces machined at different orientations and positions from the pressed pellet. Large dimensionless figure of merit (zT) values were achieved for all samples, with values greater than zT = 1.2 at 773 K. Statistical analysis revealed consistent material properties, which are necessary for device applications of the given material.
Inorganic thermoelectric materials: A review
International Journal of Energy Research, 2020
Thermoelectric generator, which converts heat into electrical energy, has great potential to power portable devices. Nevertheless, the efficiency of a thermoelectric generator suffers due to inefficient thermoelectric material performance. In the last two decades, the performance of inorganic thermoelectric materials has been significantly advanced through rigorous efforts and novel techniques. In this review, major issues and recent advancements that are associated with the efficiency of inorganic thermoelectric materials are encapsulated. In addition, miscellaneous optimization strategies, such as band engineering, energy filtering, modulation doping, and low dimensional materials to improve the performance of inorganic thermoelectric materials are reported. The methodological reviews and analyses showed that all these techniques have significantly enhanced the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and reduced the thermal conductivity, consequently, improved ZT value to 2.42, 2.6, and 1.85 for near-room, medium, and high temperature inorganic thermoelectric material, respectively. Moreover, this review also focuses on the performance of silicon nanowires and their common fabrication techniques, which have the potential for thermoelectric power generation. Finally, the key outcomes along with future directions from this review are discussed at the end of this article.
Thermoelectric performance of higher manganese silicide nanocomposites
Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2015
Thermoelectric is a promising technology that can convert temperature differences to electricity (or vice versa). However, their relatively low efficiencies limit their applications to thermoelectric power generation systems. Therefore, low cost and high performance are important prerequisites for the application of thermoelectric materials to automotive thermoelectric generators. Silicide-based thermoelectric materials are good candidates for such applications. Recently, the thermoelectric performances of silicide-based thermoelectric materials have been significantly improved. However, increasing the thermoelectric performance of the materials while ensuring mechanical reliability remains a challenge. This review summarizes the preparation and design guidelines for silicide-based thermoelectric nanocomposites, as well as our recent progress in the development of nanocomposites with high thermoelectric performances or high mechanical reliabilities.
Advanced Sustainable Systems, 2021
energy would improve the efficiency of all these processes. In this context, thermoelectric devices provide a unique opportunity with significant advantages relative to other types of conversion, such as durability (no moving parts or fluids inside the generator), noise-free, low maintenance, modulability, and their applicability at different scales (from microdevices to large spaces to produce kilowatts), etc. [2] The implementation of thermoelectric generators has been limited for many years because of their low efficiency and high cost. There are examples of these limited applications like in space missions such as the Voyager, Apollo, Curiosity, etc. [3] when reliability is mandatory. Other niche applications with products that are being sold are, for instance, the powering of smartwatches with wasted heat from the human body [4] or the obtainment of electricity from the heat produced in wood stoves, [5] among others. [6] The vast majority of commercial thermoelectric devices are based on heavy elements like Bismuth and Tellurium. Which, according to Figure 1a are among the rarest elements in the Earth's crust on the order of noble metals (like Au, Pt…) or even less abundant. Therefore, they are more expensive to manufacture. Other thermoelectrics with high figure of merit can be based on moderately toxic elements (or even highly toxic elements, like Pb, which is part of some of the best performing thermoelectrics but is banned in the EU). The toxicity of the elements in the Periodic Table is shown in Figure 1b. Therefore, although the use of less abundant or toxic elements is of interest at the research level because they allow us to understand and underpin the physics behind thermoelectricity and develop new strategies to improve them. However, to develop safe and widespread thermoelectric applications the use of less abundant or toxic elements does not seem to be the best option. Traditionally, the research in the field of thermoelectric materials has focused on improving the adimensional figure-ofmerit, zT, which is related to the energy conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials. This figure of merit can be expressed as zT = S 2 •σ•T•κ −1 , where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ the electrical conductivity, T the absolute temperature, and κ the thermal conductivity. In recent years, zT values higher than 2 have been obtained at the laboratory level, implying efficiency values above 10% in proof-of-concept prototypes. [7] Despite the enormous effort being made to reach these values, they are still This review article gives an overview of the recent research directions in ecofriendly, non-toxic, and earth-abundant thermoelectric materials. It covers materials such as sulfides, tetrahedrites, earth-abundant oxides, silicides, copper iodine, Half-Heusler intermetallic compounds, nitrides, and other environmentally friendly thermoelectrics. In all cases, their history, structure, general characteristics, thermoelectric properties, synthesis methods, and related thermoelectric applications are compiled. It is also shown that they are starting to be an excellent alternative for producing cost-effective, sustainable, and non-toxic thermoelectric generators. This review does not try to include all possible materials, but to show that there are high zT thermoelectric materials that are starting to be an excellent alternative for producing cost-effective, sustainable, and non-toxic thermoelectric generators.
Thermoelectrics: Material Candidates and Structures I – Chalcogenides and Silicon-Germanium Alloys
Thermoelectrics, 2018
Bismuth telluride, Bi 2 Te 3 , state-of-the-art material, is a well-established and effective thermoelectric material from V-VI group of materials. The Peltier effect (thermal cooling) has been observed in p-Bi 2 Te 3 coupled with n-type samples and has been commercialized since the early 1960s. Tremendous amount of research has been reported on these materials from single crystal form to polycrystalline form and from 3D to nanodimensions to quantum confinement. The atomic arrangement in A 2 B 3 (A ¼ Bi,Sb; B ¼ Se,Te,S) compounds can be described as in Fig. 5.1. Here, the Bi and Te atoms are arranged by following the sequence of Te (1)-BiTe (2)-BiTe (1). Such a sequence is continuously repeated in parallel layers and single sequence known as quintuple. Here, the superscript for Te refers to various types of bonding with bismuth. The Te (1)-Bi and BiTe (2) are bonded by strong covalent-ionic bond, whereas a weak van der Waals force is responsible for bonding between Te (1) and Te (1) atoms. Due to this weak bonding between two successive quintuples, this compound has layered structure, and the crystal can easily cleavage along this direction, i.e., normal to the c-direction. There are a number of factors which contribute to making these materials the best thermoelectric material category among all other TE materials. These compounds are highly anisotropic in nature with high electrical conductivity with improved thermopower, good Seebeck coefficient, and lower thermal conductivity in the perpendicular direction compared to parallel to c-direction. Thermoelectric performance of chalcogenide-based thermoelectric materials can be improved by various approaches, such as enhancing electronic transport properties; tuning the carrier conduction, via doping, alloying, and band structure engineering; or lowering the phonon conductivity through reduction in the
Review of Recent Progresses in Thermoelectric Materials
Advances in Engineering Materials, 2021
Thermoelectric (TE) technology facilitates the direct conversion of heat into electricity and vice versa. Thermoelectric materials attract researchers since they facilitate a promising green energy solution in the form of solid-state cooling and power generation. However, the low energy conversion efficiency restricts the use of TE materials in real-world applications. Developing highly efficient thermoelectric materials is necessary to benefit the environment as well as the economy. The performance of a particular TE material is generally evaluated by the dimensionless figure of merit (ZT). Recent years have witnessed progress with new techniques in maximizing the ZT values of various thermoelectric materials. In this review, we summarize recent development in thermoelectric materials for a specific temperature range, which has been developed to improve their maximum ZT value up to 95% at the same temperature.
Thermoelectric Materials: Fundamental, Applications and Challenges
Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology, 2018
Energy and the environment are popular themes in the 21st century because both are closely interlinked. The current technologies are focusing on finding new, clean, safe and renewable energy sources for a better environment. Thermoelectric (TE) materials are able to generate electricity when applied a temperature different at a junction of two dissimilar materials. This is a promising technology to directly convert waste heat into electricity without any gas emission, thus providing one of the most clean and safe energy. However, the applications of TE devices are still limited due to its low energy conversion efficiency and high material cost. As a result, researches in TE materials are mainly focusing on the improving of efficiency and developing cheap materials. In this paper, the fundamental, challenges and applications of thermoelectric materials were reviewed. In addition, currently research in thermoelectric materials and improving their efficiency will also be reviewed.