Overview of the Optimization of Thermoelectric Materials by Nanoscale Adjustment



At present, with the continuous development of human science, the world is committed to finding new energy sources and energy conversion technologies, thermoelectric materials have received widespread attention for their superior environmental performance. In the field of thermoelectric materials, the thermoelectric figure of merit Z of the material is an important index to judge the thermoelectric performance. This article mainly introduces how to improve the thermoelectric figure of merit of thermoelectric materials by adjusting the nanometer scale, and the specific methods are mainly doped nanoparticles and nanomaterials. For semiconductors, methods such as nanoparticle doping to reduce thermal conductivity and increase the thermoelectric figure of merit are effective. For high molecular polymers, they have low thermal conductivity. Therefore, the research on polymers is devoted to the composite of polymers and high-conductivity materials, and the resulting composite materials have both excellent thermoelectric properties and mechanical properties. The research on semiconductors and polymers through the adjustment of nanoscale has found that whether it is semiconductor materials or polymer composite materials, nanotechnology provides more possibilities for the development of materials, and nanotechnology also shows great advantages and potential.

Keywords: nanostructures, nanotechnology, thermoelectric materials, reducing thermal conductivity

Citation: Chunsheng Guo et al. “Overview of the Optimization of Thermoelectric Materials by Nanoscale Adjustment”. SVOA Materials Science &Technology, 2020, 2(04): 80-90.