Zintl phases for thermoelectric devices
Abstract
By converting waste heat into electricity and improving the efficiency of refrigeration systems, thermoelectric devices could play a significant role in solving today's energy problems. Increasing the thermoelectric efficiency (as measured by the thermoelectric material's figure-of-merit, zT) is critical to the development of this technology. Complex Zintl phases, in particular, make ideal candidates for thermoelectric materials because the necessary electron–crystal, phonon–glass properties can be engineered with an understanding of the Zintl chemistry. A recent example is the discovery that Yb14MnSb11, a transition metal Zintl compound, has twice the zT as the material currently in use at NASA. This perspective outlines a strategy to discover new high zT materials in Zintl phases, and presents results pointing towards the success of this approach.
Additional Information
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2007. Received 13th February 2007, Accepted 11th April 2007. First published on the web 24th April 2007. Our work covered in this Perspective has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation (DMR-0600742) and NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Files
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 8105
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:KAUdt07
- Created
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2007-07-30Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field