Power generation from nanostructured PbTe-based thermoelectrics: comprehensive development from materials to modules

By Xiaokai Hu, P. Jood, M. Ohta, Masaru Kunii, Kazuo Nagase, H. Nishiate, M. Kanatzidis, Atsushi Yamamoto. 2016

283 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this work, we demonstrate the use of high performance nanostructured PbTe-based materials in high conversion efficiency thermoelectric modules. We fabricated the samples of PbTe–2% MgTe doped with 4% Na and PbTe doped with 0.2% PbI2 with high thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) and sintered them with Co–Fe diffusion barriers for use as p- and n-type thermoelectric legs, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy of the PbTe legs reveals two shapes of nanostructures, disk-like and spherical. The reduction in lattice thermal conductivity through nanostructuring gives a ZT of ∼1.8 at 810 K for p-type PbTe and ∼1.4 at 750 K for n-type PbTe. Nanostructured PbTe-based module and segmented-leg module using Bi2Te3 and nanostructured PbTe were fabricated and tested with hot-side temperatures up to 873 K in a vacuum. The maximum conversion efficiency of ∼8.8% for a temperature difference (ΔT) of 570 K and ∼11% for a ΔT of 590 K have been demonstrated in the nanostructured PbTe-based module and segmented Bi2Te3/nanostructured PbTe module, respectively. Three-dimensional finite-element simulations predict that the maximum conversion efficiency of the nanostructured PbTe-based module and segmented Bi2Te3/nanostructured PbTe module reaches 12.2% for a ΔT of 570 K and 15.6% for a ΔT of 590 K respectively, which could be achieved if the electrical and thermal contact between the nanostructured PbTe legs and Cu interconnecting electrodes is further improved.

Subfields: Civil and Structural Engineering, Clinical Psychology, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c611914b7100b7d9d30517e1dd9adb1ae138eac6

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1. Jiangtao Wei
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5. Jing Ma
6. Mingliang Zhang
7. Fuhua Yang
8. Peishuai Song

Citations in the corpus

• Review of current high-ZT thermoelectric materials (2020, background): “[365] Hu X, Jood P, Ohta M, Kunii M, Nagase K, Nishiate H, Kanatzidis MG, Yamamoto A (2016) Power generation”