Suppressing Ag₂Te nanoprecipitates for enhancing thermoelectric efficiency of AgSbTe₂

Abstract

Thermoelectrics is a class of material that provides interconversion between heat and electricity, with desirable traits such as low thermal conductivity and low electrical resistivity AgSbTe2 has emerged as one...

Thermoelectrics for nuclear fusion reactors: opportunities and challenges

“…2. Although many of the TE materials can achieve high zT s of >2, such as GeTe, 23–34 PbTe, 35–39 and SnSe, 40–44 and others exhibit peak performances in the medium temperature range (473–973 K), 45–53 such TE materials will not be considered for discussion in this review, as they overlap with the operating temperature range of the much more efficient existing heat cycle of the molten salt coolant. Instead, for reliable performance on the plasma-facing surfaces, one should select from the tried and tested high temperature (873–1273 K) TE materials that have been used or assessed for RTGs in deep space probes, such as Si 1− x Ge x , La 3− x Te 4 and Yb 14 MgSb 11 zintls.…”

“…As the research on TE materials advanced over the years, many effective strategies and paradigms have been explored and developed to not only enhance the peak zT but also the average zT over a wide temperature gradient (from room temperature to the highest measured temperature). Such strategies include band convergence, 8,43–51 resonant levels, 52–58 all-scale hierarchal defect architectures, 59–65 off-centred and discordant atoms, 66–68 metavalent bonding, 69–74 minority carrier blocking additives, 75–78 and wide band-gap and layered structures. 10,79–84 While there has been a general push in recent years to enhance the average zT , perhaps for the plasma-facing applications, with a useful temperature range of 973–1273 K or above, it would be more feasible to revert back to the old focus of enhancing peak zT at the highest temperature as the minimum cold side temperature is still rather high (∼973 K).…”