Nanostructure-Enhanced Bulk Thermoelectric Materials

The objective of this proposal is to leverage the exceptional results and learning from the Phase I program to develop and implement bulk material processes to produce thermoelectric materials on a pilot plant scale and make thermoelectric component pellets that are fabricated into complete, testable, multi-couple modules with significantly increased thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT. The phonon scattering provided by the process as proven in the Phase I program manifests high ZT thermoelectric material, providing for future enhanced fuel economy via waste-heat to electrical energy conversion as well as provide quiet, efficient standalone power from dedicated intentional fuel sources or naturally occurring heat harvesting circumstances such as internal combustion engines. Verified Phase I methodologies of bulk material quick processing that include rapid quenching, advanced powder preparation techniques and controlled nano-structure sintering will be scaled-up and brought to precision control. Combined with intrinsic boundary/transition layer fusion and powder characterization, it is proposed to develop the capability to make large compacts of the target AgPbmSnmSbTe11+m (LASTT) alloy that will be fabricated into pellets for multicouple modules for real world use. The proposed highly adaptable process will also be applicable for high volume AgPbmSbTe2+m (LAST) alloy production of module ready pellets.