Kauzlarich Susan M, Brown Shawna R, Snyder G Jeffrey
Department of Chemistry, University of California, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Dalton Trans. 2007 Jun 7(21):2099-107. doi: 10.1039/b702266b. Epub 2007 Apr 24.
By converting waste heat into electricity and improving the efficiency of refrigeration systems, thermoelectric devices could play a significant role in solving today's energy problems. Increasing the thermoelectric efficiency (as measured by the thermoelectric material's figure-of-merit, zT) is critical to the development of this technology. Complex Zintl phases, in particular, make ideal candidates for thermoelectric materials because the necessary "electron-crystal, phonon-glass" properties can be engineered with an understanding of the Zintl chemistry. A recent example is the discovery that Yb(14)MnSb(11), a transition metal Zintl compound, has twice the zT as the material currently in use at NASA. This perspective outlines a strategy to discover new high zT materials in Zintl phases, and presents results pointing towards the success of this approach.
通过将废热转化为电能并提高制冷系统的效率，热电装置在解决当今能源问题方面可以发挥重要作用。提高热电效率（由热电材料的品质因数zT衡量）对于这项技术的发展至关重要。特别是复杂的津特耳相，是热电材料的理想候选者，因为通过了解津特耳化学可以设计出所需的“电子晶体，声子玻璃”特性。最近的一个例子是发现Yb(14)MnSb(11)，一种过渡金属津特耳化合物，其zT是美国国家航空航天局目前使用材料的两倍。这篇综述概述了在津特耳相中发现新型高zT材料的策略，并展示了表明该方法成功的结果。
