Figure of merit ZT of a thermoelectric device defined from materials properties

While the thermoelectric materials figure of merit is a well defined metric to evaluate thermoelectric materials, it can be a poor metric for maximum thermoelectric device efficiency because of the temperature dependence of the Seebeck coefficient S , the electrical resistivity ρ , and the thermal c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy & environmental science 2017-01, Vol.10 (11), p.2280-2283
Main Authors: Snyder, G. Jeffrey, Snyder, Alemayouh H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Approximation
Electrical resistivity
Figure of merit
Heat conductivity
Historical account
Mathematical analysis
Seebeck effect
Temperature
Temperature dependence
Temperature effects
Thermal conductivity
Thermoelectric generators
Thermoelectric materials
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Summary:While the thermoelectric materials figure of merit is a well defined metric to evaluate thermoelectric materials, it can be a poor metric for maximum thermoelectric device efficiency because of the temperature dependence of the Seebeck coefficient S , the electrical resistivity ρ , and the thermal conductivity κ where T is the absolute temperature. Historically the field has used a thermoelectric device figure of merit ZT to characterize a device operating between a hot side temperature T h and cold side temperature T c . While there are many approximate methods to calculate ZT from temperature dependent materials properties, an exact method is given here that uses a simple algorithm that can be performed on a spreadsheet calculator. The figure of merit is defined for a thermoelectric generator using the maximum efficiency of the thermoelectric device η calculated from the exact method.
ISSN:1754-5692
1754-5706
DOI:10.1039/C7EE02007D