Nanomaterials for Thermoelectrics
1Department of Material Science and Engineering, Yonsei University, Republic of Korea
2Environment-Energy Ceramics, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology, Republic of Korea
3Electronic Materials Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
4Department of Material Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
5Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Nanomaterials for Thermoelectrics
Description
The production and use of fossil fuels raise environmental concerns. A global movement toward the generation of renewable energy is, therefore, underway to help meet increased energy needs. Among various green energy technologies, thermoelectric power generation has attracted increasing attention.Thermoelectric generation refers to the direct conversion of waste heat into useful electricity. Because of a nonpolluting and renewable technique, it is a suitable candidate for future energy conversion. High electrical conductivity, low thermal conductivity, and the high Seebeck coefficient are required for thermoelectric materials. However, it is difficult to control these factors individually, because thermal conductivity is generally proportional to electrical conductivity. One way to disrupt this relationship is to control the microstructure on a nanoscale. By adopting a new design concept of phonon-glass electron-crystal, nanostructure could be adopted to optimize thermoelectric figure of merit. The goal of this special issue is to exhibit recent developments in the nanomaterials for application in thermoelectrics, so as to plot a picture of (1) the current state of the field and (2) the opportunities for future research related to nanomaterials for thermoelectrics. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Novel materials and structures for thermoelectrics
- Theoretical guidance to high efficiency thermoelectric energy conversion
- New and emerging technologies for thermoelectric power conversion
- Low dimensional aspects of thermoelectric materials
- Device performance requirements for future applications
Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnm/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/jnm/nmth/ according to the following timetable: