Reversible Thermoelectric Nanomaterials

T. E. Humphrey and H. Linke

Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 096601 – Published 9 March 2005

Abstract

Irreversible effects in thermoelectric materials limit their efficiency and economy for applications in power generation and refrigeration. While electron transport is unavoidably irreversible in bulk materials, here we derive conditions under which reversible diffusive electron transport can be achieved in nanostructured thermoelectric materials. We provide a fundamental thermodynamic explanation for why the optimum density of states in a thermoelectric material is a delta function and for why inhomogeneous doping and segmentation improve the thermoelectric figure of merit.

Received 20 July 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.096601

Authors & Affiliations

T. E. Humphrey^1,2,* and H. Linke³

¹Engineering Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2522, Australia
²School of Physics, University of New South Wales, New South Wales 2052, Australia
³Materials Science Institute and Physics Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1274, USA

^*Electronic address: tammy.humphrey@unsw.edu.au

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Vol. 94, Iss. 9 — 11 March 2005

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