Ying Pingjun, He Ran, Mao Jun, Zhang Qihao, Reith Heiko, Sui Jiehe, Ren Zhifeng, Nielsch Kornelius, Schierning Gabi
Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, Dresden, Germany.
Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH), University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 18;12(1):1121. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21391-1.
Thermoelectric technology converts heat into electricity directly and is a promising source of clean electricity. Commercial thermoelectric modules have relied on BiTe-based compounds because of their unparalleled thermoelectric properties at temperatures associated with low-grade heat (<550 K). However, the scarcity of elemental Te greatly limits the applicability of such modules. Here we report the performance of thermoelectric modules assembled from BiTe-substitute compounds, including p-type MgAgSb and n-type Mg(Sb,Bi), by using a simple, versatile, and thus scalable processing routine. For a temperature difference of ~250 K, whereas a single-stage module displayed a conversion efficiency of ~6.5%, a module using segmented n-type legs displayed a record efficiency of ~7.0% that is comparable to the state-of-the-art BiTe-based thermoelectric modules. Our work demonstrates the feasibility and scalability of high-performance thermoelectric modules based on sustainable elements for recovering low-grade heat.
热电技术可直接将热能转化为电能，是一种很有前景的清洁能源来源。商用热电模块一直依赖于基于BiTe的化合物，因为它们在与低品位热（<550 K）相关的温度下具有无与伦比的热电性能。然而，元素碲的稀缺极大地限制了此类模块的适用性。在此，我们报告了通过使用简单、通用且可扩展的加工流程，由BiTe替代化合物（包括p型MgAgSb和n型Mg(Sb,Bi)）组装而成的热电模块的性能。对于约250 K的温差，单级模块的转换效率约为6.5%，而使用分段n型支腿的模块显示出创纪录的约7.0%的效率，这与最先进的基于BiTe的热电模块相当。我们的工作证明了基于可持续元素的高性能热电模块用于回收低品位热的可行性和可扩展性。
