ABSTRACT
Thermoelectric (TE) materials convert heat into electricity directly through the Seebeck effect or operate as heat pumps using the Peltier effect. TE energy conversion has drawn a great attention for applications in areas such as solar thermal conversion [1], industrial waste heat recovery [2], and spot cooling of electronic devices [3]. The efciency of a TE material is strongly related to its dimensionless gure of merit ZT, dened as ZT = α2σT/κ, where α, σ, κ, and T are the Seebeck coefcient, electrical conductivity, total thermal conductivity, and the absolute temperature, respectively. To achieve high efciency, a large ZT is required. High electrical conductivity (corresponding to low Joule heating), large Seebeck coefcient (corresponding to a large potential difference), and low thermal conductivity (corresponding to a large temperature difference) are the necessary attributes of an efcient TE material. However, these three transport parameters are strongly
CONTENTS
20.1 Introduction and Background ......................................................................................... 541 20.2 Combustion Synthesis .......................................................................................................545 20.3 Bi2Te3−xSex Synthesized by SHS-PAS ..............................................................................547
