Detail Cantuman

A d v a n c e s i n t h e r m o e l e c t r i c s
Jun Mao a∗∗, Zihang Liu a∗∗, Jiawei Zhoub, Hangtian Zhua, Qian Zhangc∗, Gang Chenb∗
and Zhifeng Rena∗
aDepartment of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, TX,
USA; bDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA,
USA; cDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen,
Guangdong, People’s Republic of China
Thermoelectric generators, capable of directly converting heat into electricity, hold great
promise for tackling the ever-increasing energy sustainability issue. The thermoelectric energy
conversion efficiency is heavily dependent upon the materials’ performance that is quantified by the dimensionless figure-of-merit (ZT). Therefore, the central issue in the research
of thermoelectric materials lies in continuously boosting the ZT value. Although thermoelectric effects were discovered in the nineteenth century, it was only until the 1950s when
classic materials like Bi2Te3 and PbTe were developed and basic science of thermoelectrics
was established. However, the research of thermoelectrics did not take a smooth path but a
rather tortuous one with ups and downs. After hiatus in the 1970s and 1980s, relentless efforts
starting from the 1990s were devoted to understanding the transport and coupling of electrons
and phonons, identifying strategies for improving the thermoelectric performance of existing
materials, and discovering new promising compounds. Rewardingly, substantial improvements
in materials’ performance have been achieved that broke the ZT limit of unity. Meanwhile,
advancements in fundamental understanding related to thermoelectrics have also been made.
In this Review, recent advances in the research of thermoelectric materials are overviewed.
Herein, strategies for improving and decoupling the individual thermoelectric parameters are
first reviewed, together with a discussion on open questions and distinctly different opinions.
Recent advancements on a number of good thermoelectric materials are highlighted and several newly discovered promising compounds are discussed. Existing challenges in the research
of thermoelectric materials are outlined and an outlook for the future thermoelectrics research
is presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of topics in other fields but related to
thermoelectricity.
PACS: 72.20.Pa Thermoelectric effects; 84.60.Rb Thermoelectric energy conversion; 66.70.Df Thermal conduction; 72.20.Jv Charge carriers; 72.20.-i Electrical conductivity; 63.22.-m Phonons; 63.20.kp
Phonon-defect interactions
Keywords: thermoelectric; efficiency; power factor enhancement; phonon scattering;
electron-phonon coupling; defects