Advanced Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials for Waste Heat Recovery
Abstract
The rapid development of thermoelectric materials in the past decade has provided a possibility of directly
converting waste heat back to electricity based on the Seebeck effect. In the past three years, we have developed a transformative approach to pioneered low cost and scalable
solution-phase growth methods to mass produce thermoelectric nanowires and nanowire heterostructures to
match the physical and economic magnitudes of energy use and economical entertainment in the
manufacture/recycling. These nanostructured thermoelectric materials show a significantly enhanced
performance compared to the bulk crystals based on the quantum confinement and energy filtering.