Enhanced Thermoelectric Efficiency via Orthogonal Electrical and Thermal Conductances in Phosphorene

Enhanced thermoelectric efficiency via orthogonal electrical and thermal conductances in phosphorene.

Thermoelectric devices that utilize the Seebeck effect convert heat flow into electrical energy and are highly desirable for the development of portable, solid state, passively powered electronic systems. The conversion efficiencies of such devices are quantified by the dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT), which is proportional to the ratio of a device's electrical conductance to ...

Enhanced Thermoelectric Efficiency of Porous Silicene Nanoribbons

There is a critical need to attain new sustainable materials for direct upgrade of waste heat to electrical energy via the thermoelectric effect. Here we demonstrate that the thermoelectric performance of silicene nanoribbons can be improved dramatically by introducing nanopores and tuning the Fermi energy. We predict that values of electronic thermoelectric figure of merit ZTe up to 160 are ac...

Enhanced Efficiency of Thermoelectric Generator by Optimizing Mechanical and Electrical Structures

Much attention has been paid to the application of low temperature thermal resources, especially for power generation in recent years. Most of the current commercialized thermal (including geothermal) power-generation technologies convert thermal energy to electric energy indirectly, that is, making mechanical work before producing electricity. Technology using a thermoelectric generator (TEG),...

Micro-thermoelectric cooler: interfacial effects on thermal and electrical transport

The flows of heat and electricity in a column-type micro-thermoelectric cooler are analyzed by modeling the various interfacial resistances. Electron (barrier tunneling) and phonon (diffuse mismatch) boundary resistances at the thermoelectric/metal interface, and thermal non-equilibrium between electrons and phonons adjacent to this interface (cooling length), increase the thermal conduction re...

Enhanced thermoelectric performance in the very low thermal conductivity Ag2Se0.5Te0.5