Thermoelectric energy conversion using nanostructured materials

Gang Chen; Daniel Kraemer; Andrew Muto; Kenneth McEnaney; Hsien-Ping Feng; Wei-Shu Liu; Qian Zhang; Bo Yu; Zhifeng Ren

doi:10.1117/12.885759

16 May 2011 Thermoelectric energy conversion using nanostructured materials

Gang Chen, Daniel Kraemer, Andrew Muto, Kenneth McEnaney, Hsien-Ping Feng, Wei-Shu Liu, Qian Zhang, Bo Yu, Zhifeng Ren

Proceedings Volume 8031, Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications III; 80311J (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.885759
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2011, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

High performance thermoelectric materials in a wide range of temperatures are essential to broaden the application spectrum of thermoelectric devices. This paper presents experiments on the power and efficiency characteristics of lowand mid-temperature thermoelectric materials. We show that as long as an appreciable temperature difference can be created over a short thermoelectric leg, good power output can be achieved. For a mid-temperature n-type doped skutterudite material an efficiency of over 11% at a temperature difference of 600 °C could be achieved. Besides the improvement of thermoelectric materials, device optimization is a crucial factor for efficient heat-to-electric power conversion and one of the key challenges is how to create a large temperature across a thermoelectric generator especially in the case of a dilute incident heat flux. For the solar application of thermoelectrics we investigated the concept of large thermal heat flux concentration to optimize the operating temperature for highest solar thermoelectric generator efficiency. A solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency of ~5% could be demonstrated. Solar thermoelectric generators with a large thermal concentration which minimizes the amount of thermoelectric nanostrucutured bulk material shows great potential to enable cost-effective electrical power generation from the sun.

Citation Download Citation

Gang Chen, Daniel Kraemer, Andrew Muto, Kenneth McEnaney, Hsien-Ping Feng, Wei-Shu Liu, Qian Zhang, Bo Yu, and Zhifeng Ren "Thermoelectric energy conversion using nanostructured materials", Proc. SPIE 8031, Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications III, 80311J (16 May 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.885759

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