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Title: Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb 1-x Ti x FeSb

Abstract

Significance Thermoelectric technology can boost energy consumption efficiency by converting some of the waste heat into useful electricity. Heat-to-power conversion efficiency optimization is mainly achieved by decreasing the thermal conductivity in many materials. In comparison, there has been much less success in increasing the power factor. We report successful power factor enhancement by improving the carrier mobility. Our successful approach could suggest methods to improve the power factor in other materials. Using our approach, the highest power factor reaches ∼106 μW⋅cm −1 ⋅K −2 at room temperature. Such a high power factor further yields a record output power density in a single-leg device tested between 293 K and 868 K, thus demonstrating the importance of high power factor for power generation applications.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [2];  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204,, Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204,
  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139,
  3. Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD 21251,
  4. Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467,
  5. Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204,, Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204,, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1332377
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1388392
Grant/Contract Number:  
DOE DE-SC0010831; SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Published Article
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 113 Journal Issue: 48; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 42 ENGINEERING; half-Heusler; thermoelectric; power factor; carrier mobility; output power density

Citation Formats

He, Ran, Kraemer, Daniel, Mao, Jun, Zeng, Lingping, Jie, Qing, Lan, Yucheng, Li, Chunhua, Shuai, Jing, Kim, Hee Seok, Liu, Yuan, Broido, David, Chu, Ching-Wu, Chen, Gang, and Ren, Zhifeng. Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb 1-x Ti x FeSb. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.1617663113.
He, Ran, Kraemer, Daniel, Mao, Jun, Zeng, Lingping, Jie, Qing, Lan, Yucheng, Li, Chunhua, Shuai, Jing, Kim, Hee Seok, Liu, Yuan, Broido, David, Chu, Ching-Wu, Chen, Gang, & Ren, Zhifeng. Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb 1-x Ti x FeSb. United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617663113
He, Ran, Kraemer, Daniel, Mao, Jun, Zeng, Lingping, Jie, Qing, Lan, Yucheng, Li, Chunhua, Shuai, Jing, Kim, Hee Seok, Liu, Yuan, Broido, David, Chu, Ching-Wu, Chen, Gang, and Ren, Zhifeng. 2016. "Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb 1-x Ti x FeSb". United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617663113.
@article{osti_1332377,
title = {Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb 1-x Ti x FeSb},
author = {He, Ran and Kraemer, Daniel and Mao, Jun and Zeng, Lingping and Jie, Qing and Lan, Yucheng and Li, Chunhua and Shuai, Jing and Kim, Hee Seok and Liu, Yuan and Broido, David and Chu, Ching-Wu and Chen, Gang and Ren, Zhifeng},
abstractNote = {Significance Thermoelectric technology can boost energy consumption efficiency by converting some of the waste heat into useful electricity. Heat-to-power conversion efficiency optimization is mainly achieved by decreasing the thermal conductivity in many materials. In comparison, there has been much less success in increasing the power factor. We report successful power factor enhancement by improving the carrier mobility. Our successful approach could suggest methods to improve the power factor in other materials. Using our approach, the highest power factor reaches ∼106 μW⋅cm −1 ⋅K −2 at room temperature. Such a high power factor further yields a record output power density in a single-leg device tested between 293 K and 868 K, thus demonstrating the importance of high power factor for power generation applications.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1617663113},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1332377}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
issn = {0027-8424},
number = 48,
volume = 113,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617663113

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 191 works
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