High-Entropy Engineering in Thermoelectric Materials: A Review

Abstract

Thermoelectric (TE) materials play a crucial role in converting energy between heat and electricity, essentially for environmentally friendly renewable energy conversion technologies aimed at addressing the global energy crisis. Significant advances in TE performance have been achieved over the past decades in various TE materials through key approaches, such as nanostructuring, band engineering, and high-entropy engineering. Among them, the design of high-entropy materials has recently emerged as a forefront strategy to achieve significantly low thermal conductivity, attributed to severe lattice distortion and microstructure effects, thereby enhancing the materials’ figure of merit (zT). This review reveals the progress of high-entropy TE materials developed in the past decade. It discusses high-entropy-driven structural stabilization to maintain favorable electrical transport properties, achieving low lattice thermal conductivity, and the impact of high entropy on mechanical properties. Furthermore, the review explores the theoretical development of high-entropy TE material and discusses potential strategies for future advancements in this field through interactions among experimental and theoretical studies.