Transport Properties of Bulk Thermoelectrics An International Round-Robin Study, Part I: Seebeck Coefficient and Electrical Resistivity

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Journal of Electronic Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-012-2396-8· OSTI ID:1078157

Wang, Hsin ^[1]; Porter, Wallace D ^[1]; Bottner, Harold ^[2]; Konig, Jan ^[2]; Chen, Lidong ^[3]; Bai, Shengqiang ^[3]; Tritt, Terry M. ^[4]; Mayolett, Alex ^[5]; Senawiratne, Jayantha ^[5]; Smith, Charlene ^[5]; Harris, Fred ^[6]; Gilbert, Partricia ^[7]; Sharp, Jeff ^[7]; Lo, Jason ^[8]; Keinke, Holger ^[9]; Kiss, Laszlo I. ^[10]

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1. ORNL
2. Fraunhofer-Institute, Freiburg, Germany
3. Chinese Academy of Sciences
4. Clemson University
5. Corning, Inc
6. ZT-Plus
7. Marlow Industries, Inc
8. CANMET - Materials Technology Laboratory, Natural Resources of Canada
9. University of Waterloo, Canada
10. University of Quebec at Chicoutimi

Recent research and development of high temperature thermoelectric materials has demonstrated great potential of converting automobile exhaust heat directly into electricity. Thermoelectrics based on classic bismuth telluride have also started to impact the automotive industry by enhancing air conditioning efficiency and integrated cabin climate control. In addition to engineering challenges of making reliable and efficient devices to withstand thermal and mechanical cycling, the remaining issues in thermoelectric power generation and refrigeration are mostly materials related. The figure-of-merit, ZT, still needs to improve from the current value of 1.0 - 1.5 to above 2 to be competitive to other alternative technologies. In the meantime, the thermoelectric community could greatly benefit from the development of international test standards, improved test methods and better characterization tools. Internationally, thermoelectrics have been recognized by many countries as an important area for improving energy efficiency. The International Energy Agency (IEA) group under the implementing agreement for Advanced Materials for Transportation (AMT) identified thermoelectric materials as an important area in 2009. This paper is Part I of the international round-robin testing of transport properties of bulk thermoelectrics. The main focuses in Part I are on two electronic transport properties: Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). High Temperature Materials Lab. (HTML)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1078157
• Journal Information: Journal of Electronic Materials, Vol. 42, Issue 4; ISSN 0361--5235
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

thermoelectrics