Selection and Evaluation of Materials for Thermoelectric Applications II

Abstract

AbstractIn good thermoelectrics phonons have short mean free paths, and charge carriers have long ones. The other requirements are a multivalley band structure and a band gap greater than 0.1 eV for the 200 to 300 K temperature range. We discuss the use of solid state physics and chemistry concepts, along with atomic and crystal structure data, to select the new materials most likely to meet these criteria.