Discovery of ZrCoBi based half Heuslers with high thermoelectric conversion efficiency

Hangtian Zhu, Ran He, Jun Mao, Qing Zhu, Chunhua Li, Jifeng Sun, Wuyang Ren, Yumei Wang, Zihang Liu, Zhongjia Tang, Andrei Sotnikov, Zhiming Wang, David Broido, David J. Singh, Gang Chen, Kornelius Nielsch and Zhifeng Ren ()
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Hangtian Zhu: University of Houston
Ran He: University of Houston
Jun Mao: University of Houston
Qing Zhu: University of Houston
Chunhua Li: Boston College
Jifeng Sun: University of Missouri
Wuyang Ren: University of Houston
Yumei Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zihang Liu: University of Houston
Zhongjia Tang: University of Houston
Andrei Sotnikov: Institute for Metallic Materials, IFW-Dresden
Zhiming Wang: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
David Broido: Boston College
David J. Singh: University of Missouri
Gang Chen: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kornelius Nielsch: Institute for Metallic Materials, IFW-Dresden
Zhifeng Ren: University of Houston

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Thermoelectric materials are capable of converting waste heat into electricity. The dimensionless figure-of-merit (ZT), as the critical measure for the material’s thermoelectric performance, plays a decisive role in the energy conversion efficiency. Half-Heusler materials, as one of the most promising candidates for thermoelectric power generation, have relatively low ZTs compared to other material systems. Here we report the discovery of p-type ZrCoBi-based half-Heuslers with a record-high ZT of ∼1.42 at 973 K and a high thermoelectric conversion efficiency of ∼9% at the temperature difference of ∼500 K. Such an outstanding thermoelectric performance originates from its unique band structure offering a high band degeneracy (Nv) of 10 in conjunction with a low thermal conductivity benefiting from the low mean sound velocity (vm ∼2800 m s−1). Our work demonstrates that ZrCoBi-based half-Heuslers are promising candidates for high-temperature thermoelectric power generation.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04958-3

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