Event Details

The past decade has witnessed significant advances in the field of thermoelectric materials thanks to extensive research along new pathways to enhance properties, in particular nanostructuring bulk materials to largely reduce the thermal conductivity which has resulted in peak thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT).
Achieving high peak ZT has been the goal of the thermoelectric community. Is high peak ZT good enough? Does a high peak ZT necessary translated into a high efficiency? The answer is "NO". I will demonstrate how a high peak ZT cannot warrantee a high efficiency, but engineering (ZT)eng is the right answer. I will also demonstrate how a high conversion efficiency does not warrantee high output power density, but the high engineering power factor (PF)eng does, and this is what matters most for thermoelectric power generators.