Abstract: Thermoelectric materials directly convert thermal energy into electric energy through Seebeck effect. The nanostructured approach for these materials has led to significant improvements in the figure of merit mainly by tailoring the lattice thermal conductivity. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the strategies adopted for phonon scattering and its confinement in the nanostructures with the goal of reducing the thermal conductivity. We discuss the approaches that are being adopted for developing cost-effective thermoelectrics and identify the promise offered by oxide materials. Compared with the alloy-based thermoelectric materials, oxide thermoelectrics have many advantages including abundance of raw materials, low cost, non-toxicity, and thermal stability. Several important oxide thermoelectric candidates are introduced with specific focus on ZnO. Self-assembled nano-composites of ZnO have been shown to exhibit reduction in thermal conductivity by a factor of about three mainly due to the phonon scattering by uniformly distributed nanoprecipitates (ZnAl2O4) and large grain boundary area. The effects of nanoscale inclusion in Ca-Co-O system (Ca3Co4O9) and natural superlattices in SrO/SrTiO3 are also discussed. Several self-assembly techniques are discussed which are promising for fabrication of oxide thermoelectrics.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-10-28
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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