New thermoelectric material prevents heat waste
Fossil fuels create modern society by generating heat, but most of the heat in this process is wasted. Researchers have tried to use semiconductor devices called "thermoelectricity" to recover some heat, but most of them are still very inefficient and expensive.
Tin selenide material becomes a research leader in the field of recycling waste heat Image source: Northwestern University
Now, scientists in Illinois, USA, report that they have used a cheap common material to create the most efficient thermoelectricity ever recovered. The researchers said that in the process, they gained valuable experience, and ultimately the efficiency of the material can meet the needs of a wide range of applications. If a wide range of applications can be achieved, thermal power can provide power to cars in the future, and clean up the energy released by boilers and power plants.
Thermoelectric devices are thick slabs of semiconductors. These semiconductors have strange but useful characteristics: heating on one side can generate a voltage that is used to drive current and electrical equipment. In order to obtain voltage, thermoelectricity must be a good electrical conductor as well as a bad thermal conductor. Unfortunately, the electrical and thermal conductivity of materials often go hand in hand, so materials with high thermoelectric efficiency are difficult to obtain. Scientists usually mark the characteristics of high thermoelectric efficiency with ZT value, and the minimum ZT value of thermoelectricity for a wide range of applications should reach 3.
A few years ago, a team led by Mercuri Kanatzidis, a chemist at Northwestern University, discovered that lead telluride (PbTe) had a ZT value of 2.2. Kanatzidis and colleagues were encouraged and began testing PbTe's chemical close relatives. One of them is tin selenide (SnSe). The researchers used different methods to synthesize tin selenide samples. The results show that the b-axis samples have better electrical conductivity and lower thermal conductivity, and the ZT value reaches 2.6. Kanatzidis said that the key to the ultra-low thermal conductivity seems to be the fold arrangement of tin and selenium atoms. This mode seems to help the atoms buckle when subjected to thermal vibration, thereby reducing SnSe's thermal conductivity. The results of the study were published in the recent "Nature" magazine.
"I'm surprised." Joseph Heremans, a physicist at Ohio State University, said, "For this field, this is a wonderful result." Heremans believes that in addition to marking a big step towards thermoelectricity with a ZT of 3 In addition, the new materials also provide experience for future research methods. The researchers will try to increase the conductivity of semiconductors by strengthening traces of "doped" atoms, while still retaining the key fold-like arrangement of atoms. If someone can successfully produce materials with high ZT values, then new and cheaper hybrid car engines will be produced. In a hybrid car engine, the internal combustion engine does not provide power to the car, but generates heat, which is then converted into electricity to drive the motor by thermoelectric power.
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