Functionally Graded Thermoelectric Materials

Abstract

Functionally graded thermoelectric material (TE FGM) is one of main research direction in research field of thermoelectric (TE) materials all over world. A lot of research work on TE FGM has been done to improve the conversion efficiency of TE. Here the development of TE FGM in recent years is discussed in the aspects of the model design, the materials selection, the barrier or joining choice and the device fabrication.

Compositionally Graded Organic–Inorganic Nanocomposites for Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance

“…[14,[24][25][26] FG-TEMs are inhomogeneous materials with a spatial gradation in the composition and/or structure of materials, resulting in a corresponding variation in their thermoelectric, electrical, thermal, and/or mechanical properties. [14,27] As reported in the literature, FG-TEMs can be designed as continuous-graded structures or segmented-graded structures, depending on the material characteristics, processing methods, and/or their applications. The key challenge is to replace the sharp interfaces within the traditional composite structure with graded interfaces that may be achieved by tuning chemical composition, microstructure, or porosity.…”

“…This problem was first considered in the context of inorganic TE materials in work by Ioffe et al, where the concept of functionally graded thermoelectric material (FG‐TEM) design was proposed, that could lead to 50–100% improvement in device efficiency with the use of existing inorganic TE materials . FG‐TEMs are inhomogeneous materials with a spatial gradation in the composition and/or structure of materials, resulting in a corresponding variation in their thermoelectric, electrical, thermal, and/or mechanical properties . As reported in the literature, FG‐TEMs can be designed as continuous‐graded structures or segmented‐graded structures, depending on the material characteristics, processing methods, and/or their applications.…”