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.