The Potential of Nanostructured Carbons as High Efficiency, High Temperature Thermoelectric Materials for Power Generation

摘要

Thermoelectric materials have functioned superbly in unattended, maintenance free, stressful environments to power spacecraft such as Cassini and Voyager, in the latter case for a period of time exceeding twenty years. However, thermoelectric materials with efficiencies in the range of 30-40 percent useful for terrestrial power generation applications still remain an elusive goal. Formidable and well recognized challenges are posed by attempts significantly to exceed the 8-12 percent efficiencies of current state of the art bulk materials. A new approach using nanomaterials may offer solutions to hitherto intractable problems perhaps providing a way at last to convert heat to electricity directly with high efficiency.