Nanostructure-Enhanced Bulk Thermoelectric Materials

Significant improvement in the ZT (figure of merit) has been recently been reported in thin film thermoelectric materials. These improvements were achieved by taking the advantage of low dimensionality in PbTe-based quantum well and quantum dot systems prepared by MBE and in BiTe-SbTe quantum well systems prepared by MOCVD. However, to become commercially viable new low-cost processing routes are needed for preparing bulk materials that contains nanostructured, thermoelectric active components. The proposed program focuses on development of a nanocomposite thermoelectric material composed of nanostructured "core-shell" particulates. In Phase I, "core-shell" nanostructure PbTe-PbSe will be developed by using a solution based technique, consolidated using colloidal processing techniques and then densified using high energy compaction. The nanocomposite bulk samples for evaluated by Hi-Z, a thermoelectric manufacturer.