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Thermoelectrics-UCM
  • Home
  • Research
    • CNS2022-135302
    • TED2021-129569A-I00
    • PR65/19-22459 UCM-CM
    • Facilities
    • Publications
    • Videos
  • Team
    • Members: CNS2022-135302
    • Members: TED2021-129569A-I00
    • Members: PR65/19-22459
  • News
  • Vacancies
  • Photo gallery
  • Contact
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    • Home
    • Research
      • CNS2022-135302
      • TED2021-129569A-I00
      • PR65/19-22459 UCM-CM
      • Facilities
      • Publications
      • Videos
    • Team
      • Members: CNS2022-135302
      • Members: TED2021-129569A-I00
      • Members: PR65/19-22459
    • News
    • Vacancies
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Thermoelectrics @ UCM

Preparation, characterization and properties of non-molecular solids

Dpto. Química Inorgánica - Universidad Complutense de Madrid

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. 

A.V. Powell, P. Vaqueiro, S. Tippireddy, J. Prado-Gonjal. Exploiting chemical bonding principles to design high-performance thermoelectric materials. Nature Reviews Chemistry, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00695-6 
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  
M. González-Barrios et al. Microwave-assisted synthesis of thermoelectric oxides and chalcogenides. Ceramics International, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2022.01.096 
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

TED2021-129569A-I00  (MATTER project)

CNS2022-135302 (TERMADES project)

PR65/19-22459   UCM-CM

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