ABSTRACT
The sustainability of the human race and its development relies heavily on energy. This necessitates the development of technologies that use renewable energy sources such as sunlight, wind, tides, hydrogen, and waste heat management. While solar, wind, and tidal energy technologies have already been developed and are in use, thermoelectric materials are still in the nascent stage of development. Hydrogen is an abundant and efficient source of clean energy. Still, it presents a high risk due to its inflammable nature, making it necessary to develop materials for appropriate hydrogen production, storage, and detection to compete with fossil fuels and introduce a hydrogen-based economy. This chapter presents various aspects of thermoelectric and hydrogen energy, starting from their underlying principles. It reviews the materials involved such as chalcogenide and composite oxides. For hydrogen-driven technology, metal hydrides, chemical hydrogen storage, and sorbent materials are currently being researched. The merits and demerits of different materials and potential solutions for various challenges in these technologies are also discussed. A systematic description of the properties of various materials, the effect of synthesis techniques, process parameters, and composition has been provided in the context of thermoelectric and hydrogen energy technologies.
