A portable thermal chamber with a volume of only 2.5 l capable of reaching temperatures over the −5C to 70C range was designed and constructed. In order to make the thermal chamber lightweight and portable, two series connected thermoelectric modules were used as actuators since their size and performance characteristics allow the portability and precise temperature control. The PID control pro...

Thermoelectric energy conversion is widely recognized as a promising technology both for electric power generation in terms of waste heat recovery and for cooling of various electronic devices [1]. SrTiO3 based perovskites are among a number of candidate materials for such thermoelectric applications [2]. For the first time, we demonstrate the successful synthesis of (1-x)SrTiO3-xLa1/3NbO3 cera...

UNLABELLED Solution-processable telluride-based heterostructures coated with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (Te-Bi2Te3/PEDOT:PSS) were synthesized through a solution-phase reaction at low temperatures. The water-based synthesis yielded PEDOT PSS-coated Te-Bi2Te3 nano-barbell structures with a high Seebeck coefficient that can be stably dispersed in water. These hybrid...

It was found that the nonlinear Peltier effect could take place and increase the cooling power density when a lightly doped thermoelectric material is under a large electrical field. This effect is due to the Seebeck coefficient enhancement from an electron distribution far from equilibrium. In the nonequilibrium transport regime, the solution of the Boltzmann transport equation in the relaxati...

Although clathrate materials are known for their small thermal conductivity, they have not shown large thermoelectric power factor so far. We present the band structures of type VIII Si, Ge, and Sn clathrates as well as the alkali and alkaline-earth intercalated type VIII Si clathrates. Our calculations revealed that this group of materials have potentially large power factor due to the existen...

Diamond-like compounds are a promising class of thermoelectric materials, very suitable for real applications. However, almost all high-performance diamond-like thermoelectric materials are p-type semiconductors. The lack of high-performance n-type diamond-like thermoelectric materials greatly restricts the fabrication of diamond-like material-based modules and their real applications. In this ...

Chen, Liangliang, Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2013. Semiconductor Nanomaterial Development for Photovoltaic and Thermoelectric Applications. Major Professor: Xiulin Ruan, School of Mechanical Engineering. Today’s world is frequently going through fossil energy shortage and environmental consequences brought by the over-emission of greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuels. Therefore, it i...

Direct conversion from heat to electricity is one of the important technologies for a sustainable society since large quantities of energy are wasted as heat. We report the development of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-based high conversion efficiency, air-stable and flexible thermoelectric material. We prepared cobaltocene-encapsulated SWNTs (denoted CoCp2@SWNTs) and revealed that the ...

Title of Document: THERMOELECTRIC TRANSPORT PHENOMENA IN SEMICONDUCTING NANOSTRUCTURES Jane Elizabeth Cornett, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Directed By: Associate Professor Oded Rabin, Department of Materials Science and Engineering The efficiencies of state-of-the-art thermoelectric devices made from bulk materials remain too low for widespread application. Early predictions by Hicks and Dressel...

We derive a general formalism for evaluating the high-frequency limit of the thermoelectric power of strongly correlated materials, which can be straightforwardly implemented in available first principles LDA + DMFT programs. We explore this formalism using model Hamiltonians and we investigate the validity of approximating the static thermoelectric power S0, by its high-temperature limit, S∗. ...