Half-Heusler alloys as emerging high power density thermoelectric cooling materials

Hangtian Zhu (), Wenjie Li (), Amin Nozariasbmarz, Na Liu, Yu Zhang, Shashank Priya () and Bed Poudel ()
Additional contact information
Hangtian Zhu: Pennsylvania State University
Wenjie Li: Pennsylvania State University
Amin Nozariasbmarz: Pennsylvania State University
Na Liu: Pennsylvania State University
Yu Zhang: Pennsylvania State University
Shashank Priya: Pennsylvania State University
Bed Poudel: Pennsylvania State University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract To achieve optimal thermoelectric performance, it is crucial to manipulate the scattering processes within materials to decouple the transport of phonons and electrons. In half-Heusler (hH) compounds, selective defect reduction can significantly improve performance due to the weak electron-acoustic phonon interaction. This study utilized Sb-pressure controlled annealing process to modulate the microstructure and point defects of Nb0.55Ta0.40Ti0.05FeSb compound, resulting in a 100% increase in carrier mobility and a maximum power factor of 78 µW cm−1 K−2, approaching the theoretical prediction for NbFeSb single crystal. This approach yielded the highest average zT of ~0.86 among hH in the temperature range of 300-873 K. The use of this material led to a 210% enhancement in cooling power density compared to Bi2Te3-based devices and a conversion efficiency of 12%. These results demonstrate a promising strategy for optimizing hH materials for near-room-temperature thermoelectric applications.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38446-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38446-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38446-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().