Bottom-Up Engineering Strategies for High-Performance Thermoelectric Materials

Abstract The recent advancements in thermoelectric materials are largely credited to two factors, namely established physical theories and advanced materials engineering methods. The developments in the physical theories have come a long way from the “phonon glass electron crystal” paradigm to the m...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Qiang Zhu, Suxi Wang, Xizu Wang, Ady Suwardi, Ming Hui Chua, Xiang Yun Debbie Soo, Jianwei Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2021-05-01
Series:Nano-Micro Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-021-00637-z
Description
Summary:Abstract The recent advancements in thermoelectric materials are largely credited to two factors, namely established physical theories and advanced materials engineering methods. The developments in the physical theories have come a long way from the “phonon glass electron crystal” paradigm to the more recent band convergence and nanostructuring, which consequently results in drastic improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit value. On the other hand, the progresses in materials fabrication methods and processing technologies have enabled the discovery of new physical mechanisms, hence further facilitating the emergence of high-performance thermoelectric materials. In recent years, many comprehensive review articles are focused on various aspects of thermoelectrics ranging from thermoelectric materials, physical mechanisms and materials process techniques in particular with emphasis on solid state reactions. While bottom-up approaches to obtain thermoelectric materials have widely been employed in thermoelectrics, comprehensive reviews on summarizing such methods are still rare. In this review, we will outline a variety of bottom-up strategies for preparing high-performance thermoelectric materials. In addition, state-of-art, challenges and future opportunities in this domain will be commented.
ISSN:2311-6706
2150-5551