1. High performance (ZT>1) n-type oxide thermoelectric composites from earth abundant materials
- Author
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Tanmoy Maiti, Mani Ranjan, Megha Acharya, and Subhra Sourav Jana
- Subjects
Materials science ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,Oxide ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Thermoelectric materials ,01 natural sciences ,Umklapp scattering ,0104 chemical sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Thermoelectric generator ,Thermal conductivity ,chemistry ,Electrical resistivity and conductivity ,Thermoelectric effect ,General Materials Science ,Graphite ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Composite material ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
Oxide-based thermoelectric materials have the advantages of high-temperature stability, low toxicity and low processing cost comparted to other metal-based systems. However, achieving ZT > 1 remain elusive especially for n-type bulk oxide thermoelectrics. Here, we report the experimental demonstration of ZT > 1 in n-type oxides by synthesizing composites of Nb-doped SrTiO3 (STN) with natural graphite. Introduction of conductive graphite inclusions in STN matrix has led to a surge in electrical conductivity due to 21-times increase in weighted mobility ( μ w ) of electrons resulting in high thermoelectric power factor ~5400 µW m K 2 , which is ~16-times higher than that of pure STN. Furthermore, we could restrain the increase in thermal conductivity by attaining enhanced Umklapp scattering along with phonon-glass-like temperature-independent phonon mean-free-path above Debye temperature. We have achieved the maximum ZT ~1.42 in STN+ 0.5 wt% G composite, which is 15-times enhancement compared to STN. Our proposed way of designing rare-earth-free composites with graphite can potentially open up the possibility of fabricating novel high-temperature thermoelectric generators.
- Published
- 2021
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