Development of high-performance thermoelectric materials using energy selective scattering effects

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26630332
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Composite materials/Surface and interface engineering
• Research Institution: Toyota Technological Institute
• Principal Investigator: Takeuchi Tsunehiro 豊田工業大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (00293655)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 熱電材料 / ゼーベック係数 / エネルギー選択散乱効果 / ショットキー障壁

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we investigated the energy selective scatterings of electrons at the grain boundary. By employing higher manganese silicide and making its grain size smaller than 1 micro-m, we observed an effective increase of Seebeck coefficient together with a small decrease in electrical conductivity. These behaviors are well accounted for with the energy selective scattering effect. We also confirmed that the performance of higher manganese silicide based thermoelectric materials was improved by 30 - 40 % due to the energy selective scattering effect, and succeeded in preparing high-performance thermoelectric materials consisting solely of cheap, non-toxic elements.

Free Research Field

金属電子論，固体物理学