Estimating Energy Conversion Efficiency of Thermoelectric Materials: Constant Property Versus Average Property Models

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Hannah Armstrong ; Matthew Boese ; Cody Carmichael…
• 关键词：Thermoelectric generator ; ZT ; efficiency modeling ; average property ; constant property
• 刊名：Journal of Electronic Materials
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：46
• 期：1
• 页码：6-13
• 全文大小：634KB
• 刊物类别：Chemistry and Materials Science
• 刊物主题：Optical and Electronic Materials; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Electronics and Microelectronics, Instrumentation; Solid State Physics;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1543-186X
• 卷排序：46

文摘

Maximum thermoelectric energy conversion efficiencies are calculated using the conventional “constant property” model and the recently proposed “cumulative/average property” model (Kim et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112:8205, 2015) for 18 high-performance thermoelectric materials. We find that the constant property model generally predicts higher energy conversion efficiency for nearly all materials and temperature differences studied. Although significant deviations are observed in some cases, on average the constant property model predicts an efficiency that is a factor of 1.16 larger than that predicted by the average property model, with even lower deviations for temperature differences typical of energy harvesting applications. Based on our analysis, we conclude that the conventional dimensionless figure of merit ZT obtained from the constant property model, while not applicable for some materials with strongly temperature-dependent thermoelectric properties, remains a simple yet useful metric for initial evaluation and/or comparison of thermoelectric materials, provided the ZT at the average temperature of projected operation, not the peak ZT, is used.