Realizing high figure of merit in heavy-band p-type half-Heusler thermoelectric materials

Chenguang Fu, Shengqiang Bai, Yintu Liu, Yunshan Tang, Lidong Chen (), Xinbing Zhao and Tiejun Zhu ()
Additional contact information
Chenguang Fu: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University
Shengqiang Bai: State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yintu Liu: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University
Yunshan Tang: State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lidong Chen: State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xinbing Zhao: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University
Tiejun Zhu: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Solid-state thermoelectric technology offers a promising solution for converting waste heat to useful electrical power. Both high operating temperature and high figure of merit zT are desirable for high-efficiency thermoelectric power generation. Here we report a high zT of ∼1.5 at 1,200 K for the p-type FeNbSb heavy-band half-Heusler alloys. High content of heavier Hf dopant simultaneously optimizes the electrical power factor and suppresses thermal conductivity. Both the enhanced point-defect and electron–phonon scatterings contribute to a significant reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity. An eight couple prototype thermoelectric module exhibits a high conversion efficiency of 6.2% and a high power density of 2.2 W cm−2 at a temperature difference of 655 K. These findings highlight the optimization strategy for heavy-band thermoelectric materials and demonstrate a realistic prospect of high-temperature thermoelectric modules based on half-Heusler alloys with low cost, excellent mechanical robustness and stability.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9144 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:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms9144

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

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9144

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 ().