Studies on mechanical properties of thermoelectric materials by nanoindentation

He, Ran; Gahlawat, Sonika; Guo, Chuan Fei; Chen, Shuo; Dahal, Tulashi; Zhang, Hao; Liu, Weishu; Zhang, Qian; Chere, Eyob Kebede; White, Kenneth W.; Ren, Zhifeng

doi:10.1002/pssa.201532045

Cited by 76 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…One group of thermoelectric materials that may have high power factor is half-Heusler (HH) compounds. Among the various HH compounds, ZrNiSn-based n-type and ZrCoSb-based p-type materials have been widely studied due to their satisfactory ZT ∼ 1 at 873-1,073 K (10), low cost (11), excellent mechanical properties (22), and nontoxicity. Recently, the NbFeSb-based p-type materials were found to possess good TE properties.…”

Section: ·Kmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb _1-x Ti _x FeSb

Kraemer

Mao

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Improvements in thermoelectric material performance over the past two decades have largely been based on decreasing the phonon thermal conductivity. Enhancing the power factor has been less successful in comparison. In this work, a peak power factor of ∼106 μW·cm −1 ·K −2 is achieved by increasing the hot pressing temperature up to 1,373 K in the p-type half-Heusler Nb 0.95 Ti 0.05 FeSb. The high power factor subsequently yields a record output power density of ∼22 W·cm −2 based on a single-leg device operating at between 293 K and 868 K. Such a high-output power density can be beneficial for large-scale power generation applications.half-Heusler | thermoelectric | power factor | carrier mobility | output power density T he majority of industrial energy input is lost as waste heat. Converting some of the waste heat into useful electrical power will lead to the reduction of fossil fuel consumption and CO 2 emission. Thermoelectric (TE) technologies are unique in converting heat into electricity due to their solid-state nature. The ideal device conversion efficiency of TE materials is usually characterized by (1)where ZT is the average thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) between the hot side temperature (T H ) and the cold side temperature (T C ) of a TE material and is defined aswhere PF, T, κ tot , S, σ, κ L , κ e , and κ bip are the power factor, absolute temperature, total thermal conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, lattice thermal conductivity, electronic thermal conductivity, and bipolar thermal conductivity, respectively. Higher ZT corresponds to higher conversion efficiency. One effective approach to enhance ZT is through nanostructuring that can significantly enhance phonon scattering and consequently result in a much lower lattice thermal conductivity compared with that of the unmodified bulk counterpart (2). This approach works well for many inorganic TE materials, such as Bi 2 Te 3 (2), IV-VI semiconductor compounds (3, 4), lead-antimony-silver-tellurium (LAST) (5), skutterudites (6), clathrates (7), CuSe 2 (8), Zintl phases (9), half-Heuslers (10-12), MgAgSb (13, 14), Mg 2 (Si, Ge, Sn) (15, 16), and others.However, nanostructuring is effective only when the grain size is comparable to or smaller than the phonon mean free path (MFP). In compounds with a phonon MFP shorter than the nanosized grain diameters, nanostructuring might impair the electron transport more than the phonon transport, thus potentially decreasing the power factor and ZT. In contrast, improving ZT by boosting the power factor has not yet been widely studied (17)(18)(19)(20). To the best of our knowledge, there is no theoretical upper limit applied to the power factor. Additionally, the output power density ω of a device with hot side at T H and cold side at T C is directly related to the power factor by (21)where L is the leg length of the TE material and PF is the averaged power factor over the leg. As contact resistance limits the reduction of length L, higher power factor favors higher power density when h...

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Section: ·Kmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb _1-x Ti _x FeSb

Kraemer

Mao

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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233

155

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“…More seriously, the additional severe mechanical vibration may accelerate the failure process of TEG devices in applications such as automobile's waste heat recovery [4]. To date, effort primarily focused on pursuing high ZT via band engineering [5] or nanostructuring [6] while limited thorough studies on the mechanical properties of advanced TE [7][8][9][10][11].…”

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confidence: 99%

Mechanical properties of nanostructured thermoelectric materials α-MgAgSb

et al. 2017

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Mechanical robustness plays an important role in the manufacturing and assembling processes as well as reliable operation for thermoelectric devices. Herein, we first give a detailed study on the mechanical properties of nanostructured α-MgAgSb. The corresponding Young's modulus, nanoindentation hardness, compressive strength, and fracture toughness are 55.0 GPa, 3.3 GPa, 389.6 MPa, and 1.1 MPa m 1/2 , respectively, which have a close relationship with the intricate microstructure. Compared with other p-type thermoelectric materials, the good mechanical properties of nanostructured α-MgAgSb further highlight the realistic prospect for power generation.

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Section: Nanomechanics Approaches and Techniques For Healthcarementioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Nanomechanics in Healthcare

Nautiyal

Alam

Balani

et al. 2017

Adv Healthcare Materials

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Nanomechanics has played a vital role in pushing our capability to detect, probe, and manipulate the biological species, such as proteins, cells, and tissues, paving way to a deeper knowledge and superior strategies for healthcare. Nanomechanical characterization techniques, such as atomic force microscopy, nanoindentation, nanotribology, optical tweezers, and other hybrid techniques have been utilized to understand the mechanics and kinetics of biospecies. Investigation of the mechanics of cells and tissues has provided critical information about mechanical characteristics of host body environments. This information has been utilized for developing biomimetic materials and structures for tissue engineering and artificial implants. This review summarizes nanomechanical characterization techniques and their potential applications in healthcare research. The principles and examples of label-free detection of cancers and myocardial infarction by nanomechanical cantilevers are discussed. The vital importance of nanomechanics in regenerative medicine is highlighted from the perspective of material selection and design for developing biocompatible scaffolds. This review interconnects the advancements made in fundamental materials science research and biomedical technology, and therefore provides scientific insight that is of common interest to the researchers working in different disciplines of healthcare science and technology.

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Studies on mechanical properties of thermoelectric materials by nanoindentation

Cited by 76 publications

References 23 publications

Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb _1-x Ti _x FeSb

Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb _1-x Ti _x FeSb

Mechanical properties of nanostructured thermoelectric materials α-MgAgSb

The Role of Nanomechanics in Healthcare

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Studies on mechanical properties of thermoelectric materials by nanoindentation

Cited by 76 publications

References 23 publications

Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb 1-x Ti x FeSb

Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb 1-x Ti x FeSb

Mechanical properties of nanostructured thermoelectric materials α-MgAgSb

The Role of Nanomechanics in Healthcare

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Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb _1-x Ti _x FeSb

Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb _1-x Ti _x FeSb