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Oxide thermoelectrics: The challenges, progress, and outlook

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2011

Jian He ,
Yufei Liu  and
Ryoji Funahashi
Jian He*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, 29634-0978
Yufei Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, 29634-0978
Ryoji Funahashi
Affiliation:
Nanotechnology Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ikeda, Osaka 563-8577, Japan; and CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0075, Japan
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: jianhe@clemson.edu
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Abstract

Most state-of-the-art thermoelectric (TE) materials contain heavy elements Bi, Pb, Sb, or Te and exhibit maximum figure of merit, ZT∼1–2. On the other hand, oxides were believed to make poor TEs because of the low carrier mobility and high lattice thermal conductivity. That is why the discoveries of good p-type TE properties in layered cobaltites NaxCoO2, Ca4Co3O9, and Bi2Sr2Co2O9, and promising n-type TE properties in CaMnO3- and SrTiO3-based perovskites and doped ZnO, broke new ground in thermoelectrics study. The past two decades have witnessed more than an order of magnitude enhancement in ZT of oxides. In this article, we briefly review the challenges, progress, and outlook of oxide TE materials in their different forms (bulk, epitaxial film, superlattice, and nanocomposites), with a greater focus on the nanostructuring approach and the late development of the oxide-based TE module.

Keywords

ThermoelectricityOxideNanostructure
Type
Reviews
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 26 , Issue 15: Focus Issue: Advances in Thermoelectric Materials , 14 August 2011 , pp. 1762 - 1772
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

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