Development of Filled-Skutterudite Based Thermopile for High Temperature Sensors for Space and Terrestrial Applications

Smith, Kevin L.; Li, Billy C.; Firdosy, Samad; Sujittosakul, Sutine; Errico, Michael; Nakatsukasa, George; Fleurial, Jean‐Pierre; Ewell, Richard

doi:10.2514/6.2016-4714

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…[ 301,302,325,[344][345][346][347][348] Thermopiles and/or generators for intermediate temperature range applications are starting to achieve remarkable efficiency values, close to 10% at laboratory scale, with excellent mechanical stability at high temperatures and interesting reproducibility. [349][350][351] Those 10 % efficiencies are similar to the ones obtained for commercial Bi 2 Te 3 -based modules for close to room-temperature applications.…”

Section: Iic Skutteruditessupporting

confidence: 71%

Thermoelectrics: From history, a window to the future

Beretta

Neophytou

Hodges

et al. 2019

Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports

403

316

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Thermoelectricity offers a sustainable path to recover and convert waste heat into readily available electric energy, and has been studied for more than two centuries. From the controversy between Galvani and Volta on the Animal Electricity, dating back to the end of the XVIII century and anticipating Seebeck's observations, the understanding of the physical mechanisms evolved along with the development of the technology. In the XIX century Ørsted clarified some of the earliest observations of the thermoelectric phenomenon and proposed the first thermoelectric pile, while it was only after the studies on thermodynamics by Thomson, and Rayleigh's suggestion to exploit the Seebeck effect for power generation, that a diverse set of thermoelectric generators was developed.From such pioneering endeavors, technology evolved from massive, and sometimes unreliable, thermopiles to very reliable devices for sophisticated niche applications in the XX century, when Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators for space missions and nuclear batteries for cardiac pacemakers were introduced. While some of the materials adopted to realize the first thermoelectric generators are still investigated nowadays, novel concepts and improved understanding of materials growth, processing, and characterization developed during the last 30 years has provided new avenues for the enhancement of the thermoelectric conversion efficiency, for example through nanostructuration, and favored the development of new classes of thermoelectric materials. With

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