Discovery of ZrCoBi based half Heuslers with high thermoelectric conversion efficiency

Zhu, Hangtian; He, Ran; Mao, Jun; Zhu, Qing; Li, Chunhua; Sun, Jifeng; Ren, Wuyang; Wang, Yumei; Liu, Zihang; Tang, Zhongjia; Sotnikov, Andrei; Wang, Zhiming; Broido, David; Singh, David J.; Chen, Gang; Nielsch, Kornelius; Ren, Zhifeng

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04958-3

Title: Discovery of ZrCoBi based half Heuslers with high thermoelectric conversion efficiency

Journal Article · Wed Jun 27 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04958-3· OSTI ID:1456255

Zhu, Hangtian; He, Ran;

; Zhu, Qing; Li, Chunhua; Sun, Jifeng; Ren, Wuyang; Wang, Yumei; Liu, Zihang; Tang, Zhongjia; Sotnikov, Andrei; Wang, Zhiming; Broido, David; Singh, David J.;

; Nielsch, Kornelius; Ren, Zhifeng

Abstract Thermoelectric materials are capable of converting waste heat into electricity. The dimensionless figure-of-merit (ZT), as the critical measure for the material’s thermoelectric performance, plays a decisive role in the energy conversion efficiency. Half-Heusler materials, as one of the most promising candidates for thermoelectric power generation, have relatively low ZTs compared to other material systems. Here we report the discovery of p -type ZrCoBi-based half-Heuslers with a record-high ZT of ∼1.42 at 973 K and a high thermoelectric conversion efficiency of ∼9% at the temperature difference of ∼500 K. Such an outstanding thermoelectric performance originates from its unique band structure offering a high band degeneracy ( N _v ) of 10 in conjunction with a low thermal conductivity benefiting from the low mean sound velocity ( v _m ∼2800 m s ⁻¹ ). Our work demonstrates that ZrCoBi-based half-Heuslers are promising candidates for high-temperature thermoelectric power generation.

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Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0001299

OSTI ID:: 1456255

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1511491

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Vol. 9 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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Cited by: 208 works

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