Preface to Special Topic: Thermoelectric Materials
Name
Chen_Preface.pdf
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304.29 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b003ae02317e2f87bd3415162cc6c130
Author(s)
Zebarjadi, Mona
Chen, Gang
Date Issued
October 2016
Journal
APL Materials
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Citation
Zebarjadi, Mona, and Gang Chen. “Preface to Special Topic: Thermoelectric Materials.” APL Materials 4, no. 10 (October 2016): 104401.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Thermoelectric power generators are solid-state devices, which can directly convert heat into electricity. Their clean and environmentally friendly operation makes them attractive in applications such as power generation and heat pumping. Thermoelectric devices have been invented more than 70 years ago, however their commercial applications remained limited due to their low energy conversion efficiency. The main limiting factor in thermoelectric devices is the quality factor of the materials used. The efficiency of the thermoelectric energy conversion is an increasing function of the materials’ nondimensional figure of merit, ZT = σS[superescript 2]T/κ, where σ is the electrical conductivity, S the Seebeck coefficient, T the temperature and κ the thermal conductivity.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4966252
