Bismuth Based Thermoelectric Materials for Cooling
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Date
2010-12
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Thermoelectric devices are solid state heat engines used in small coolers, air conditioning systems, and devices that generate electrical power from heat, such as the exhaust of automobiles. These devices directly convert electricity to thermal energy or vice-versa. They have no moving parts, create no noise or vibrations, require no maintenance, are extremely reliable, and can be used at any scale. The major disadvantage is that these devices are less efficient that traditional cooling or power conversion methods. Recent research at OSU resulted in a doubling of the efficiency of TE devices by the use of a new physical principle, resonant impurities, in lead telluride (Heremans et al., Science vol. 321, p554, 2008). More recent research funded by the Japanese auto industry focuses on the development of thermoelectric materials that do not contain rare or toxic elements, like lead and tellurium. This undergraduate research project focuses on improving the efficiency of bismuth-antimony alloys for cooling applications, by identifying resonant impurities first in polycrystalline elemental bismuth. Very little is known about the electrical effects of impurities other than tin, lead and tellurium in bismuth. During the course of the project, very small amounts of several elements have been alloyed into bismuth, but with varying results. Preliminary experiments seem to indicate that indium might significantly improve the thermoelectric efficiency of bismuth, thus possibly opening a new class of thermoelectric alloys suitable for thermoelectric cooling applications.
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Keywords
Bismuth, Thermoelectric