Sono disponibili posizioni di tesi (triennale e magistrale).
Prof. Je-Hyeong Bahk, Univ. of Chicago, meets us and delivers a great talk on thermoelectric transport in hierarchical ceramic composites.
Dario Narducci elected Secretary of the International Thermoelectric Society for a second term.
Prof. Mei-Jiau Huang from National Taiwan University visits our laboratory.
Federico Giulio wins the Falling Walls Lab Italy with a pitch on Falling Walls on Data Center Heat Waste and will fly to Berlin to compete for the Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year.
Three oral communications from ThE Lab on SiGe thin films, nanopillars, and dynamic thermoelectric conversion at next ECT in Nancy.
Efficiency of TEGs can be enhanced by 50% by time-modulating heat fluxes. Just published in Materials Today Physics.
Thermoelectricity is among the most exciting fields of research for a materials scientist, as it embodies the full spirit of the discipline.
First, you have a challenge, namely that of devising materials with exceptional properties such as low thermal conductivity, high electrical conductivity and a large Seebeck coefficient - all in one material. As all challenges, it must be faced in a creative way, both choosing solids that best approximate this set of conflicting properties; and handling defects in a smart way, making them a tool to improve properties the way you need.
Then, you must think materials in view of their application, which means accounting for several other materials issues, from controlling diffusivity at interfaces to mastering differential thermal dilation at junctions.
Not enough: device geometry must serve a specific application context, so materials and devices must meet real-world requirements including that of being part of a proper thermal chain or of being shaped as curved surfaces. The choice of the materials preparation technique and of the device assembly must keep together all of the above - from defect and stoichiometry control to appropriate contact resistance under the harsh operative conditions the device will have to sustain.
Finally (or initially), thermoelectricity was and is a substantial branch of thermodynamics, and the modes of operation of a thermoelectric system still call for sophisticated theoretical analyses, which have inspired novel developments of irreversible thermodynamics, from the analysis of the efficiency at finite rate to recent studies on phonon hydrodynamics.
Could you find anything better around?