High-performance nanostructured thermoelectric materials

Thermoelectric effects enable direct conversion between thermal and electrical energy and provide an alternative route for power generation and refrigeration. Over the past ten years, the exploration of high-performance thermoelectric materials has attracted great attention from both an academic research perspective and with a view to industrial applications. This review summarizes the progress that has been made in recent years in developing thermoelectric materials with a high dimensionless figure of merits (ZT) and the related fabrication processes for producing nanostuctured materials. The challenge to develop thermoelectric materials with superior performance is to tailor the interconnected thermoelectric physical parameters — electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity — for a crystalline system. Nanostructures provide a chance to disconnect the linkage between thermal and electrical transport by introducing some new scattering mechanisms. Recent improvements in thermoelectric efficiency appear to be dominated by efforts to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity through nanostructural design. The materials focused in this review include Bi–Te alloys, skutterudite compounds, Ag–Pb–Sb–Te quaternary systems, half-Heusler compounds and some high-ZT oxides. Possible future strategies for developing thermoelectric materials are also discussed.