ABSTRACT
Tellurium (Te) oxides have been considered as promising materials due to their nontoxicity, low cost, and chemical stability at high temperatures. This chapter summarizes the research and development of exploring the usage of TE oxide-based materials for high-temperature thermoelectric power generators (TEGs). The performance of oxide materials and devices in the first part of this chapter will be considered under the ideal theoretical condition of no parasitic losses and disregard other factors such as mechanical properties, thermal expansion coefficient, and chemical stability. One of the main drawbacks of reported oxide TEG is the low performance of oxide materials in the temperature range of 300–700 K. In a cascade generator, the oxide TEG is stacked with other high-performance TEG working at a mid-low temperature that is normally made of alloys. By this way, the performance of the module can be improved with about twice compared to that of single oxide-based module.
