The search for sustainable energy sources is currently increasing due to global warming and climate change.
THERMOELECTRICITY offers a way to recover and convert the energy that is wasted as heat into easily available electric energy.
High thermoelectric performance of a material requires the uncommon combination of high Seebeck coefficient (S) and high electrical conductivity (σ) together with low thermal conductivity (κ = κL + κe). This last includes the contributions of the lattice thermal conductivity (κL) and the electronic thermal conductivity (κe).
There is a deep search for new materials with improved thermoelectric efficiency. Representative examples are Bi2Te3, PbTe, SiGe, GeTe, Zintl phases, metal silicides, skutterudites, half-Heusler alloys, clathrates or transition metal oxides.
Thermoelectric materials are usually synthesized by a prolonged annealing process (days) of stoichiometric amounts of high-purity precursors. This effective method presents some disadvantages (operation at high temperatures, difficult control of the stoichiometry when using volatile reagents, high energy and time consuming process). Consequently, there is a strong motivation to find alternative process, where the energy requirements for the synthesis and the reaction time are considerably minimized. Our group is exploring "Fast Chemistry" methods, such as ball-milling, high-pressure or microwave-assisted synthesis, for the development of nanostructured thermoelectric materials.
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I. Caro-Campos et al. Challenges Reconciling Theory and Experiments in the Prediction of Lattice Thermal Conductivity: The Case of Cu-Based Sulvanites. Chemistry of Materials, 2024.https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c01343
M. González-Barrios et al. Perspective on Crystal Structures, Synthetic Methods, and New Directions in Thermoelectric Materials. Small Structures, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1002/sstr.202400136
J. Prado-Gonjal et al. Optimizing Thermoelectric Properties through Compositional Engineering in Ag-Deficient AgSbTe2 Synthesized by Arc Melting. ACS Applied Electronic Materials, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaelm.3c01653
J. Prado-Gonjal et al. High thermoelectric performance of rapidly microwave-synthesized Sn1-δS. Mater. Adv., 2020, 1, 845-853 https://doi.org/10.1039/D0MA00301H
J. Gainza et al. Unveiling the Correlation between the Crystalline Structure of M‐Filled CoSb3 (M= Y, K, Sr) Skutterudites and Their Thermoelectric Transport Properties. Adv. Funct. Mater., 2020, 2001651. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202001651