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Oxide thermoelectrics: The challenges, progress, and outlook

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Abstract

Most state-of-the-art thermoelectric (TE) materials contain heavy elements Bi, Pb, Sb, or Te and exhibit maximum figure of merit, ZT∼1–2. On the other hand, oxides were believed to make poor TEs because of the low carrier mobility and high lattice thermal conductivity. That is why the discoveries of good p-type TE properties in layered cobaltites NaxCoO2, Ca4Co3O9, and Bi2Sr2Co2O9, and promising n-type TE properties in CaMnO3- and SrTiO3-based perovskites and doped ZnO, broke new ground in thermoelectrics study. The past two decades have witnessed more than an order of magnitude enhancement in ZT of oxides. In this article, we briefly review the challenges, progress, and outlook of oxide TE materials in their different forms (bulk, epitaxial film, superlattice, and nanocomposites), with a greater focus on the nanostructuring approach and the late development of the oxide-based TE module.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

J.H. and Y.F.L thank Dr. Don Liebenberg for helpful discussion and the support from a Department of Energy/ Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DOE/EPSCoR) Implementation Grant (No. DE-FG02-04ER-46139), and in addition, support from the SC EPSCoR Office/Clemson University cost sharing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, 29634-0978, USA

    Jian He & Yufei Liu

  2. Nanotechnology Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ikeda, Osaka, 563-8577, Japan

    Ryoji Funahashi

  3. CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0075, Japan

    Ryoji Funahashi

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  1. Jian He
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  2. Yufei Liu
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Correspondence to Jian He.

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He, J., Liu, Y. & Funahashi, R. Oxide thermoelectrics: The challenges, progress, and outlook. Journal of Materials Research 26, 1762–1772 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.108

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