C3ta11654a 8725..8730

Thermoelectric energy converters are expected to play a signicant role in clean and renewable energy, and to reduce the reliance on fossil fuelled heat engines that generate approximately 90% of the world's electrical power at a typical 30–40% efficiency. The maximum efficiency of thermoelectric materials is determined by the dimensionless gure of merit, zT 1⁄4 STs/(ke + kL), which is a function of lattice thermal conductivity (kL), electronic thermal conductivity (ke), the Seebeck coefficient (S), electrical conductivity (s), and absolute temperature. Although a feasible thermoelectric generator for primary power generation requires thermoelectric materials with zT above 1.5 at 800 C operation temperature, the small size, rapid response and robustness of thermoelectric generators have made them rival candidates for several successful applications. Recently, a large number of studies have focused on the so-called mid-range temperature (600–900 K) thermoelectric materials, specically Pb chalcogenides, where the majority of broad-based applications could benet. PbTe is the premiere mid-range temperature thermoelectric material. Latest studies have reported signicant improvement of its thermoelectric performance through tuning of the electronic structure and/or the nanostructuring of bulk materials. Intrinsic semiconducting lead telluride can be tuned either to the n-type or p-type as it can contain as many as approximately