Silicon nanowires as efficient thermoelectric materials

Akram I. Boukai, Yuri Bunimovich, Jamil Tahir-Kheli, Jen-Kan Yu, William A. Goddard and James R. Heath ()
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Akram I. Boukai: MC 127-72, 1200 East California Blvd, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Yuri Bunimovich: MC 127-72, 1200 East California Blvd, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Jamil Tahir-Kheli: MC 127-72, 1200 East California Blvd, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
Jen-Kan Yu: MC 127-72, 1200 East California Blvd, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
William A. Goddard: MC 127-72, 1200 East California Blvd, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
James R. Heath: MC 127-72, 1200 East California Blvd, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 451, issue 7175, 168-171

Abstract: Silicon goes thermoelectric Thermoelectric materials, capable of converting a thermal gradient to an electric field and vice versa, could be useful in power generation and refrigeration. But the fabrication of the available high-performance thermoelectric materials is not easily scaled up to the volumes needed for large-scale heat energy scavenging applications. Nanostructuring improves thermoelectric capabilities of some materials, but good thermoelectric materials tend not to take readily to nanostructuring. How about silicon? It can be processed on a large scale but has poor thermoelectric properties. Two groups now show that silicon's thermoelectric properties can be vastly improved by structuring it into arrays of nanowires and carefully controlling nanowire morphology and doping. So with more development, silicon may have potential as a thermoelectric material.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06458

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