(470a) Silicon-Based Bulk Nanostructured Thermoelectric Generators
AIChE Annual Meeting
2011
2011 Annual Meeting
Nanomaterials for Energy Applications
Nanomaterials for Thermal-to-Electric Conversion I
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 8:30am to 9:10am
State-of-the-art thermoelectric generators are typically based on exotic alloys and have low device efficiencies. Therefore, research targeting new discoveries in earth abundant thermoelectric materials that increase device efficiency are needed. This talk will present recent progress on bulk nanostructured thermoelectric materials that are silicon-based. These include functional silicon nanowire devices and silicide/silicon eutectics. These bulk nanostructured thermoelectric devices exploit dramatic reductions of thermal conductivity due to phonon scattering at disordered interfaces, which is expected to increase ZT. Thermoelectric properties, structural characterization, and device efficiencies will be presented.