Submit to Materials Review for Materials Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Thermoelectric Materials

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Electronic Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2023) | Viewed by 6605

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Nuno Ferreira

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

i3N and Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: crystal growth; surface modifications; oxide materials; electrical properties; materials for energy harvesting
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Efficiency in electricity production and application have been the topic of many investigations in recent years. Dissipation from primary energy in the form of heat is very high at around 70%. A large amount of useful energy is unfortunately lost as waste heat, and thus, relevance has been given to the development and production of possible solutions to recover that heat waste. Thermoelectric materials, for example, can reuse this lost energy by converting it into electricity. In recent decades, the exploration of thermoelectric materials with high performance has attracted attention with the goal of commercial solutions/applications.

Thermoelectric materials with compositional complexity and unconventional synthesis influence their intrinsic properties and the electronic mechanisms, directly inducing their thermoelectric performance. A large scientific community of chemists, physicists, and materials scientists are seeking ways to improve the performance of new thermoelectric materials and devices. In this Special Issue, we will collect the newest advances in thermoelectric research, including new processing techniques, material designs, thermoelectric characterization, etc. The aim is for this Special Issue to offer readers up-to-date information on recent progress in thermoelectric materials.

Dr. Nuno Ferreira
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

thermoelectric devices
thermoelectric modules
thermoelectric materials
structural defects on thermoelectric performance
transport properties of thermoelectrics
mechanical and thermal properties of thermoelectrics
conventional and unconventional synthesis techniques for thermoelectric processing
energy conversion efficiency

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

12 pages, 3215 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thickness Dependence of Thermoelectric Properties and Maximum Output Power of Single Planar Sb₂Te₃ Films

by Prasopporn Junlabhut, Pilaipon Nuthongkum, Adul Harnwunggmoung, Pichet Limsuwan, Chanon Hatayothai, Rachsak Sakdanuphab and Aparporn Sakulkalavek

Materials 2022, 15(24), 8850; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15248850 - 11 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 949

Abstract

P-type Sb₂Te₃ films with different thicknesses were deposited on polyimide substrates via heat treatment-assisted DC magnetron sputtering. The correlations between the thickness variance and the structure, dislocation density, surface morphology, thermoelectric properties and output power are investigated. As a result, it is clear that the film thickness and the heat treatment process during growth are related to the diffusion of deposited atoms on the substrate surface, leading to imperfection defects inside the films. The imperfections inside the films are affected by their properties. This work also presents the thermoelectric efficiency of a planar single leg of the deposited films with various thicknesses. The maximum power factor is 2.73 mW/mK² obtained with a film thickness of 9.0 µm and an applied temperature of 100 °C. Planar Sb₂Te₃ produced a maximum output power of 0.032 µW for a temperature difference of 58 K. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Thermoelectric Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 2878 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Investigation on High Capacity Stove-Powered Thermoelectric Generator Incorporated with a Novel Heat Collector

by Xiaoxiao Ru, Guoneng Li, Youqu Zheng, Wenwen Guo and Yuanjun Tang

Materials 2022, 15(7), 2382; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15072382 - 23 Mar 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1780

Abstract

It is vital to supply necessary electric power during natural disasters and in deprived regions. A novel heat collector is proposed to improve the capacity of the stove-powered thermoelectric generator (SPTEG). Enclosed combustion walls are constructed with four W-shape copper plates, and act as a whole to be an exceptional heat collector, which was not previously reported in TEG studies. Forty TE modules are installed and two DC–DC converters are employed to stabilize the electric power. Owing to the novel heat collector, the generated electric power reaches 0.024 W/K per unit temperature difference for an individual TE module, which is 200% higher than the previous record (0.008 W/K) when forty TE modules are incorporated. The proposed SPTEG is able to generate a net electric power of 119 W, which is considerably larger than the previous record (75.2 W). The corresponding TE efficiency reaches 3.12%, which is measured at a temperature difference of 140 °C. The startup performance, power load feature, and cooling water flow rate of the SPTEG are studied in detail. Furthermore, one-dimensional theoretical analyses are conducted to explore the SPTEG performance. The theoretical electric power agrees well with the experimental data when DC–DC converters are not involved. Applying DC–DC converters to stabilize the electric power will alter the impendence of the SPTEG, resulting in much lower electric power output than that without DC–DC converters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Thermoelectric Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 2780 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceCommunication

Carbon Nanotube-Based Thermoelectric Modules Enhanced by ZnO Nanowires

by Patrycja Taborowska, Tomasz Wasiak, Mika Sahlman, Mari Lundström and Dawid Janas

Materials 2022, 15(5), 1924; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15051924 - 4 Mar 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1779

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have a wide range of unique properties, which have kept them at the forefront of research in recent decades. Due to their electrical and thermal characteristics, they are often evaluated as key components of thermogenerators. One can create thermogenerators exclusively from CNTs, without any metal counterpart, by properly selecting dopants to obtain n- and p-doped CNTs. However, the performance of CNT thermogenerators remains insufficient to reach wide commercial implementation. This study shows that molecular doping and the inclusion of ZnO nanowires (NWs) can greatly increase their application potential. Moreover, prototype modules, based on single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs), ZnO NWs, polyethyleneimine, and triazole, reveal notable capabilities for generating electrical energy, while ensuring fully scalable performance. Upon doping and the addition of ZnO nanowires, the electrical conductivity of pure SWCNTs (211 S/cm) was increased by a factor of three. Moreover, the proposed strategy enhanced the Power Factor values from 18.99 (unmodified SWCNTs) to 34.9 and 42.91 µW/m∙K² for CNTs triazole and polyethyleneimine + ZnO NWs inclusion, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Thermoelectric Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

13 pages, 3095 KiB

Open AccessReview

Band Structure Studies of the R₅Rh₆Sn₁₈ (R = Sc, Y, Lu) Quasiskutteridite Superconductors

by Józef Deniszczyk and Andrzej Ślebarski

Materials 2022, 15(7), 2451; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15072451 - 26 Mar 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1449

Abstract

We report on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio electronic structure investigations of the skutterudite-related

R_{5}

_{6}

_{18}

superconductors, where R = Sc, Y, and Lu. These compounds crystallise with a tetragonal structure (space group I [...] Read more.

We report on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio electronic structure investigations of the skutterudite-related

R_{5}

_{6}

_{18}

superconductors, where R = Sc, Y, and Lu. These compounds crystallise with a tetragonal structure (space group I

4_{1} / a c d

) and are characterised by a deficiency of R atoms in their formula unit (

R_{5 - δ}

_{6}

_{18}

δ ≪ 1

). Recently, we documented that the vacancies

δ

and atomic local defects (often induced by doping) are a reason for the enhancement in the superconducting transition temperature

T_{c}

of these materials, as well as metallic (

δ = 0

) or semimetallic (

δ \neq 0

) behaviours in their normal state. Our band structure calculations show the pseudogap at a binding energy of −0.3 eV for the stoichiometric compounds, which can be easily moved towards the Fermi level by vacancies

δ

. As a result, dychotomic nature in electric transport of

R_{5}

_{6}

_{18}

(metallic or semimetallic resistivity) depends on

δ

, which has not been interpreted before. We have shown that the densities of states are very similar for various

R_{5}

_{6}

_{18}

compounds, and they practically do not depend on the metal R, while they are determined by the Rh d-and Sn s- and p-electron states. The band structure calculations for Sc

_{5}

_{6}

_{18}

have not been reported yet. We also found that the electronic specific heat coefficients

γ_{0}

for the stoichiometric samples were always larger with respect to the

γ_{0}

of the respective samples with vacancies at the R sites, which correlates with the results of ab initio calculations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Thermoelectric Materials)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Thermoelectric Materials

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (4 papers)

Research

Review

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI