What is it about?
Thermoelectricity is a way to convert waste heat into usable electricity and thus is a renewable source of energy. Building high-performance thermoelectric converters is paramount for this technology to be of any impact. The work proposes approaches to the calculation of thermoelectric efficiency that go beyond the state-of-the-art.
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Why is it important?
While thermoelectricity is probably not the technology for future energy devices, it can be exploited in unusual conditions, for example in spacecraft, and as a side technology to improve energy-to-electricity production.
Perspectives
The theoretical evaluation of the thermoelectric coefficient relies strongly on the so-called linear response approach, where the temperature difference across the device is considered small. This work pushes this boundary in attempting to build up a theory that can be used beyond the linear response.
Dr Roberto D'Agosta
Universidad del Pais Vasco
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Towards a dynamical approach to the calculation of the figure of merit of thermoelectric nanoscale devices, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, January 2013, Royal Society of Chemistry,
DOI: 10.1039/c2cp42594g.
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