INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPICAL ISSUE ON THERMOELECTRIC MATERIALS AND DEVICES

摘要

More than 50% of the primary energy input in the global economy is lost to waste heat; a substantial fraction of which is recoverable in principle. For example; approximately half of the waste heat in a car or truck is in the form of high temperature exhaust gas. It is therefore no surprise that there has been a resurgence of interest in thermoelectric materials. Thermoelectrics provide a modular; solid-state technology for extracting electrical energy from heat. The key limitation has been low efficiency limited by the performance of known materials. This is characterized by a figure of merit; zt. A decade ago the best practical materials had zt of roughly unity; a figure that had not changed for many years. Efforts over the past decade have led to a doubling of this figure. This accelerating progress underlies the scientific excitement around this field.