Recent Progress of Thermoelectric Nano-composites

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1077.2010.00561

Abstract

Abstract: Microstructure engineering is an effective avenue for tuning the thermal and electrical transports to op-timize thermoelectric (TE) properties. Thermoelectric composites with nano-particle dispersion have been success-fully developed by using extrinsic or in-situ formation methods. The lattice thermal conductivity can be depressed by the scattering effects of nano particles to the medium-long-wavelength phonons. The enhanced electron density of states at the Fermi level and the carrier filtering effects caused by the nano-sized grain boundary are also positive for enhancing Seebeck coefficients. The mixing, in-situ oxidation and phase-separation precipitation process supply possibility to realize the nano-particle dispersed structure for different material systems. This paper reviews the re-cent progress of the research on nano-structured and nano-composite thermoelectric materials. The effects of the nano-dispersion on the electrical and thermal transports will be also discussed.

Key words: thermoelectric, microstructure, nano-composite, scattering, review

CLC Number:

TQ174

CHEN Li-Dong, XIONG Zhen, BAI Sheng-Qiang. Recent Progress of Thermoelectric Nano-composites[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2010, 25(6): 561-568.

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