Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Thermoelectric Half-Heuslers: Synthesis, Processing, And Performance, Joseph Robert Croteau Aug 2016

Thermoelectric Half-Heuslers: Synthesis, Processing, And Performance, Joseph Robert Croteau

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Thermoelectric half-Heusler compounds have potential to convert the heat wasted from industrial and transportation processes to useful electricity. Among the highest performing half-Heusler compounds are nano-structured bulk materials which have been arc-melted, pulverized into a nano-powder, and sintered by DC-hot press. High performing n- and p-type half-Heusler compounds with nominal composition of Hf0.25Zr0.75NiSn0.99Sb0.01 and Nb0.75Ti0.25FeSb, respectively, have been provided to us in both dense and powder form by our collaborators at the University of Houston. We consolidate these powders by SPS, refine these powders to improve both particle size …


Theory Of Carrier Transport From First Principles: Applications In Photovoltaic And Thermoelectric Materials, Alireza Faghaninia May 2016

Theory Of Carrier Transport From First Principles: Applications In Photovoltaic And Thermoelectric Materials, Alireza Faghaninia

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

New sources of energy that are environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and renewable are essential if we are to combat the effects of global climate change. Two of these sources are solar photovoltaic (PV) cells to convert sunlight into electricity and thermoelectric (TE) devices to convert heat to electricity. To be practical on a large scale, the properties (e.g. electrical conductivity, band gap, Seebeck coefficient, etc) of the the underlying materials must be improved significantly through judicious control of structure and composition. Significant understanding of materials properties is required to design and engineer new high-performing materials. First principles calculations using density functional …


New Approaches To Chalcogenide Materials For Thermoelectrics: Lead Telluride-Based Nanostructures And Facile Synthesis Of Tetrahedrite And Doped Derivatives, Derak Justin James Jan 2016

New Approaches To Chalcogenide Materials For Thermoelectrics: Lead Telluride-Based Nanostructures And Facile Synthesis Of Tetrahedrite And Doped Derivatives, Derak Justin James

Wayne State University Dissertations

The overall purpose of this work is to address several of the roadblocks to use of thermoelectric materials for generation of electricity, namely inefficient processing of materials and low performance, commonly rated by the figure of merit, ZT=T2/tot. The ZT includes  as the Seebeck coefficient,  as electrical resistivity, T as the average temperature, and tot as total thermal conductivity. tot is the sum of electronic charge carrier (C) and lattice (L) contributions to thermal conductivity. Attempts to increase ZT in the literature to values >1 have focused on decreasing the thermal conductivity via nanostructuring or optimizing the electrical …


An Experimental Investigation Towards Improvement Of Thermoelectric Properties Of Strontium Titanate Ceramics, Arash Mehdizadeh Dehkordi Aug 2014

An Experimental Investigation Towards Improvement Of Thermoelectric Properties Of Strontium Titanate Ceramics, Arash Mehdizadeh Dehkordi

All Dissertations

The direct energy conversion between heat and electricity based on thermoelectric effects is a topic of long-standing interest in condensed matter materials science. Experimental and theoretical investigations in order to understand the mechanisms involved and to improve the materials properties and conversion efficiency have been ongoing for more than half a century. While significant achievements have been accomplished in improving the properties of conventional heavy element based materials (such as Bi$_2$Te$_3$ and PbTe) as well as the discovery of new materials systems for the close-to-room temperature and intermediate temperatures, high-temperature applications of thermoelectrics is still limited to one materials system, …