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At least 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Simulation of the thermoelectric effect in a multi-metallic superconducting cavity

Superconducting radio-frequency accelerating cavities made with different material layers, such as copper, Nb or Nb₃Sn, are susceptible to thermoelectric effects due to differences in Seebeck coefficients between the metals. A temperature gradient across the surfaces can drive thermoelectric currents, which may impact the cavity performance. A layered Cu/Nb/Nb3Sn single-cell cavity was tested with cryocoolers in 2022. Three heaters were mounted on the cavity surface at different locations and three single-axis cryogenic fluxgate magnetometers were attached close to the cavity equator. A linear increase in the magnetic field was measured while increasing the heaters' power. The cavity setup was analyzed with COMSOL and the results showed a trend similar to that observed in the experiment. This contribution details the approach chosen for the simulation and some of the challenges encountered.

Accelerator Physics↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluation of Doped-LaCrO3 ceramics for high temperature sensor applications

The main objective of this work was to investigate the applicability of the doped-LaCrO3 system for electrical interconnects and sensor applications at temperatures >800°C. Various A- and B-site doping strategies were investigated, and the effect on their electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal coefficient of expansion were characterized up to 1500ºC. Solid-state, co-precipitation and sol gel methods were used to synthesize the compositions, and the chemical/thermal stability, microstructural evolution, sintering and grain growth kinetics were investigated for these compositions by XRD, SEM and Rietveld methods. The materials showing the greatest promise were included within thick film thermistor and thermocouple sensor designs that were tested to 1500ºC in various gas environments (various pO2 concentrations).

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS1984

Conduction mechanism in boron carbide

Electrical conductivity, Seebeck-coefficient, and Hall-effect measurements have been made on single-phase boron carbides, B(1-x)C(x), in the compositional range from 0.1 to 0.2 X, and between room temperature and 1273 K. The results indicate that the predominant conduction mechanism is small-polaron hopping between carbon atoms at geometrically inequivalent sites.

Wood, C.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Electronic, phononic, and thermoelectric properties of graphyne sheets

Electron, phonon, and thermoelectric transport properties of α-, β-, γ-, and 6,6,12-graphyne sheets are compared and contrasted with those of graphene. α-, β-, and 6,6,12-graphynes, with direction dependent Dirac dispersions, have higher electronic transmittance than graphene. γ-graphyne also attains better electrical conduction than graphene except at its band gap. Vibrationally, graphene conducts heat much more efficiently than graphynes, a behavior beyond an atomic density differences explanation. Seebeck coefficients of the considered Dirac materials are similar but thermoelectric power factors decrease with increasing effective speeds of light. γ-graphyne yields the highest thermoelectric efficiency with a thermoelectric figure of merit as high as ZT = 0.45, almost an order of magnitude higher than that of graphene.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Seebeck Coefficients of Layered BiCuSeO Phases: Analysis of Their Hole-Density Dependence and Quantum Confinement Effect

Hole-doped layered BiCuSeO phases include substitutionally doped Bi 1–x AxCuSeO (A = alkali, alkaline earth) as well as vacancy-doped Bi 1-δ Cu 1-γ SeO and Bi 1-δ CuSeO. To probe how their Seebeck coefficients are related to their hole density p, we calculated the Seebeck coefficient for defect-free BiCuSeO as a function of the hole density, which is generated by lowering the Fermi level from the valence band maximum (VBM). In addition, we calculated the Seebeck coefficient for Bi 1-δ CuSeO (δ = 1/32, 1/16) with a large number of Bi vacancies. The Seebeck coefficients of the hole-doped BiCuSeO phases are governed by the electronic states lying within ~0.5 eV from the VBM. These states are composed of largely Cu 3d xz/yz and Se 4p x/y states and possess the character of a uniform one-dimensional (1D) chain rather than a uniform two-dimensional (2D) lattice expected for a layered phase. The observed S-vs-p relationship for Bi 1–x A x CuSeO (A = alkali, alkaline earth) as well as Bi 1-δ Cu 1-γ SeO (δ = 0, 0.025; γ = 0, 0.025) and Bi 1-δ CuSeO (δ = 0.0, 0.025) is very well reproduced by the calculated relationship for defect-free BiCuSeO within the rigid band approximation. The observed S-vs-p relationship reflects the quantum confinement effect of uniform 1D chains, despite that the hole-doped BiCuSeO phases consist of 2D layers, (Cu 2 Se 2 ) 2– and (Bi 2 O 2 ) 2+ . The drastic decrease in the S values of Bi 1-δ CuSeO with large δ (= 0.05, 0.075, 0.10) arises from the loss of the quantum confinement effect in the (Cu 2 Se 2 ) 2– layers; that is, the uniform 1D chain character is lost because of their geometry distortion induced by a large number of Bi vacancies.

Lee, Changhoon↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Theoretical Investigation of Electronic, Magnetic, and Thermoelectric Behavior of LiZ{sub 2}O{sub 4} (Z = Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) by Modified Becke and Johnson Approach

Magnetic spinel oxides LiZ{sub 2}O{sub 4} (Z = Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) have recently appealed the scientific community due to their interesting magnetic and thermoelectric applications. In the current article, the electronic, magnetic, and thermoelectric properties of LZO have been elaborated using density functional theory-based Wien2k code. The band structures and total density of states ensure the half metallic ferromagnetic (HMF) nature of the studied compounds. Furthermore, the magnetism is discussed in detail using crystal field, John-Teller, and exchange energies involved in the system and spin density. Finally, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, power factor, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal efficiency computed by using BoltztraP code suggest these compounds for thermoelectric device fabrications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Anisotropic small-polaron hopping in W:BiVO{sub 4} single crystals

DC electrical conductivity, Seebeck and Hall coefficients are measured between 300 and 450 K on single crystals of monoclinic bismuth vanadate that are doped n-type with 0.3% tungsten donors (W:BiVO{sub 4}). Strongly activated small-polaron hopping is implied by the activation energies of the Arrhenius conductivities (about 300 meV) greatly exceeding the energies characterizing the falls of the Seebeck coefficients' magnitudes with increasing temperature (about 50 meV). Small-polaron hopping is further evidenced by the measured Hall mobility in the ab-plane (10{sup −1 }cm{sup 2 }V{sup −1 }s{sup −1} at 300 K) being larger and much less strongly activated than the deduced drift mobility (about 5 × 10{sup −5 }cm{sup 2 }V{sup −1 }s{sup −1} at 300 K). The conductivity and n-type Seebeck coefficient is found to be anisotropic with the conductivity larger and the Seebeck coefficient's magnitude smaller and less temperature dependent for motion within the ab-plane than that in the c-direction. These anisotropies are addressed by considering highly anisotropic next-nearest-neighbor (≈5 Å) transfers in addition to the somewhat shorter (≈4 Å), nearly isotropic nearest-neighbor transfers.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

The Effects of Excess Co on the Phase Composition and Thermoelectric Properties of Half-Heusler NbCoSb

NbCoSb with nominal 19 valence electrons, and is supposed to be metallic, has recently been reported to also exhibit the thermoelectric properties of a heavily doped n-type semiconductor. In this study, we prepared Co-rich NbCo 1+x Sb samples (x = 0, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5), and their phase compositions, microstructures and thermoelectric properties were investigated. The Seebeck coefficient increased a great deal with increasing x, due to decreasing carrier concentration, and the total thermal conductivity reduced mainly because of declining κ e . Finally, a peak thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, was about 0.46 for NbCo 1.3 Sb at 973 K. This enhancement was mainly attributed to the reduction of electric thermal conductivity and the increase of Seebeck coefficient. The excess Co had effects on the carrier concentration, deformation potential E def and DOS effective mass m * . Adding an excessive amount of Co leads to a very high E def , which was detrimental for transport characteristics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2005

Nanowire Thermoelectric Devices

Nanowire thermoelectric devices, now under development, are intended to take miniaturization a step beyond the prior state of the art to exploit the potential advantages afforded by shrinking some device features to approximately molecular dimensions (of the order of 10 nm). The development of nanowire-based thermoelectric devices could lead to novel power-generating, cooling, and sensing devices that operate at relatively low currents and high voltages. Recent work on the theory of thermoelectric devices has led to the expectation that the performance of such a device could be enhanced if the diameter of the wires could be reduced to a point where quantum confinement effects increase charge-carrier mobility (thereby increasing the Seebeck coefficient) and reduce thermal conductivity. In addition, even in the absence of these effects, the large aspect ratios (length of the order of tens of microns diameter of the order of tens of nanometers) of nanowires would be conducive to the maintenance of large temperature differences at small heat fluxes. The predicted net effect of reducing diameters to the order of tens of nanometers would be to increase its efficiency by a factor of .3. Nanowires made of thermoelectric materials and devices that comprise arrays of such nanowires can be fabricated by electrochemical growth of the thermoelectric materials in templates that contain suitably dimensioned pores (10 to 100 nm in diameter and 1 to 100 microns long). The nanowires can then be contacted in bundles to form devices that look similar to conventional thermoelectric devices, except that a production version may contain nearly a billion elements (wires) per square centimeter, instead of fewer than a hundred as in a conventional bulk thermoelectric device or fewer than 100,000 as in a microdevice. It is not yet possible to form contacts with individual nanowires. Therefore, in fabricating a nanowire thermoelectric device, one forms contacts on nanowires in bundles of the order of 10-microns wide. The fill factor for the cross-section of a typical bundle is about 1/2. Nanowires have been grown in alumina templates with pore diameters of 100 and 40 nm.

Borshchevsky, Alexander↗
DOE OSTI2018

Control of donor-like effect in V2VI3 polycrystalline thermoelectric materials

Highlights: • Thermal control of donor-like effect for V{sub 2}VI{sub 3} polycrystalline materials is proposed. • Low-temperature sintering or hot deforming facilitates the donor-like effect. • Recovery role by high-temperature sintering/deforming enhances the Seebeck coefficient. • Temperature should be strictly selected for each V{sub 2}VI{sub 3} polycrystalline material. - Abstract: Intrinsic point defect plays a core role in improving thermoelectric performance of V{sub 2}VI{sub 3} polycrystalline materials. However, the control of intrinsic point defect is challenging during powder refinement due to the donor-like effect. This paper shows a systematic approach to thermal control the donor-like effect via engineering spark plasma sintering and hot deformation temperature. Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 2.85}Se{sub 0.15} polycrystalline alloy with high electron concentration was chosen as example to validate the method. The low Seebeck coefficient of n-type Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 2.85}Se{sub 0.15} polycrystalline, arising from strong donor-like effect after powder refinement, was enhanced by recovery role induced reduction in electron concentration through proper tuning sintering or deforming temperature. Repetitive hot deformation was applied to further improve the Seebeck coefficient via the recovery role and a maximum zT of 1.0 is obtained at 410 K. The present results give insights into developing higher performance V{sub 2}VI{sub 3} polycrystalline materials through thermal control the donor-like effect.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity of doped armchair graphene nanoribbon in the presence of magnetic field

Highlights: • Theoretical calculation of Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity of electrons on grapheme nanoribbon. • The investigation of the effect of magnetic field and ribbon width on temperature dependence of thermoelectric properties of nanoribbon. • The study of thermopower as a function of magnetic field and temperature. - Abstract: We address the thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of armchair graphene nanoribbon within tight binding model Hamiltonian in the presence of magnetic field. The possible effects of ribbon width, magnetic field chemical potential on thermoelectric properties are investigated. Green's function approach has been employed in order to calculate transport coefficients of the system. We have also found the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity for various ribbon widths and chemical potentials. Our results show a peak appears in temperature dependence of thermal conductivity of insulator nanoribbon for low magnetic fields. Upon increasing magnetic field, thermal conductivity shows a monotonic decreasing behavior and peak disappears. Our results show the increase of chemical potential causes to decreasing behavior for thermal conductivity. Moreover we study the effects of magnetic field on temperature behavior of thermopower of insulator graphene nanoribbon in details.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Anomalous effect of vanadium boride seeding on thermoelectric properties of YB{sub 22}C{sub 2}N

Highlights: ► We doped YB{sub 22}C{sub 2}N; the long awaited n-type counterpart to p-type boron carbide. ► VB{sub 2} seeding of YB{sub 22}C{sub 2}N showed striking results. ► Thermal treatment effects led to VB{sub 2} being intrinsically doped. ► Large increase of both Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity was obtained. - Abstract: Vanadium boride seeded YB{sub 22}C{sub 2}N were synthesized and the thermoelectric properties investigated. YB{sub 22}C{sub 2}N is representative of the series of rare earth borocarbonitrides which is the potential long awaited n-type counterpart to p-type boron carbide. VB{sub 2} seeded samples of YB{sub 22}C{sub 2}N were prepared using VB{sub 2} directly as an initial additive and V{sub 2}O{sub 3} which also results in formation of vanadium diboride in the final product. The resistivity and Seebeck coefficient of samples were measured in the temperature range of 323 K to 1073 K. A dramatic effect of thermal treatment on the Seebeck coefficient of VB{sub 2} seeded samples was observed, and it is indicated that there is possible partial intrinsic doping of vanadium into YB{sub 22}C{sub 2}N. VB{sub 2} is revealed to be a promising additive to improve the thermoelectric properties of YB{sub 22}C{sub 2}N. An enhancement of more than 220% of the maximum absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient was obtained while the resistivity was also reduced considerably.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Al insertion and additive effects on the thermoelectric properties of yttrium boride

The aluminoboride Y{sub x}Al{sub y}B{sub 14} (x ∼ 0.57, 0.41 ≤ y ≤ 0.63) has been found to show striking p-n control of the thermoelectric properties through variations of the y occupancy of the Al site. The effect of Al was investigated in further extremes. Polycrystalline samples of Al-free Y{sub x}B{sub 14}(x ∼ 0.55; “YB{sub 25}”) were successfully synthesized in sufficient amounts for bulk spark plasma sintering (SPS) samples and their thermoelectric properties were investigated. Y{sub 0.56}Al{sub 0.57}B{sub 14} was also prepared in comparison, and further Al was added to the samples through SPS treatment. We observed that Y{sub 0.55}B{sub 14} exhibits large positive Seebeck coefficients, ∼1000 μV K{sup −1}, around room temperature and the absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient largely decreases with increase of temperature while that of Y{sub 0.56}Al{sub 0.57}B{sub 14} is proportional to T{sup −1/2}, indicating a strong effect of Al on the electronic structure around the Fermi level. Y{sub 0.55}B{sub 14} was found to be strongly disordered with a relatively low thermal conductivity and short localization length of 0.65 Å which is close to that previously determined for the disordered and thermally glass-like compound YB{sub 66}. Occupancy of Al could not be increased further for the Al-rich sample, although Al was discovered to act as a sintering aid to enhance density and ZT could be significantly improved by 50%.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Multifold Seebeck increase in RuO{sub 2} films by quantum-guided lanthanide dilute alloying

Ab initio predictions indicating that alloying RuO{sub 2} with La, Eu, or Lu can increase the Seebeck coefficient α manifold due to quantum confinement effects are validated in sputter-deposited La-alloyed RuO{sub 2} films showing fourfold α increase. Combinatorial screening reveals that α enhancement correlates with La-induced lattice distortion, which also decreases the thermal conductivity twentyfold, conducive for high thermoelectric figures of merit. These insights should facilitate the rational design of high efficiency oxide-based thermoelectrics through quantum-guided alloying.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Modulating the Electronic Transport of 2D Sb2Te3 Nanoplates by Coinage Metal Intercalation

Thermoelectric materials are particularly relevant to the current energy infrastructure and demands of the 21st century, converting waste heat into usable electricity. The solution intercalation of zerovalent copper into Sb2Te3 nanoplates, a well-established thermoelectric material, is reported. The copper intercalant is homogeneously distributed throughout the nanoplates, confirmed by scanning transmission electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The copper composition was shown to be 6 at. % by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Copper ordering within the van der Waals gaps of the nanoplates is confirmed by selected area electron diffraction. Fabrication and thermoelectric property measurements of single-crystal Sb2Te3 and Cu-Sb2Te3 nanoplate devices show effective modulation of electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient with Cu intercalation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies in the valence-band region reveal additional electronic states from copper that appear near the Fermi energy, postulated to act as electron acceptors, leading to modulation of the electronic transport properties.

2D nanoplates↗
DOE OSTI2019

First-principles assessment of thermoelectric properties of CuFeS 2

Composed of inexpensive and naturally abundant elements, the chalcopyrite mineral CuFeS 2 has received attention as a potentially useful thermoelectric. We use first-principles electronic structure and Boltzmann transport theory calculations to investigate thermoelectric properties of n -doped CuFeS 2 . We find that energy-dependent carrier lifetimes that are inversely proportional to the electronic density-of-states are crucial for reproducing experimental data on the transport properties, including the measured values of the Seebeck coefficient, α. The heavy-effective-mass conduction band promotes high values of α, but it also leads to low mobility due to strong electron-acoustic-phonon scattering. Low mobility forces one to rely on high carrier concentration to achieve high conductivity, which decreases α and limits the achievable power factor. Our calculations predict that ideally doped CuFeS 2 that has been nanostructured to an average grain size d≈20nm can attain thermoelectric figures of merit z T=0.25 to 0.8 for T=300 to 700 K, respectively, due to a reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

High temperature transport properties of thermoelectric CaMnO{sub 3−δ} — Indication of strongly interacting small polarons

The conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of CaMnO{sub 3−δ} have been studied at temperatures up to 1000 °C and in atmospheres with controlled oxygen partial pressure. Both transport coefficients were varied in situ by the reversible formation of oxygen vacancies up to δ = 0.15. The charge carrier concentration was calculated using a defect chemical model. The Seebeck coefficient could be approximated by Heikes' formula, while the conductivity shows a maximum at a molar charge carrier concentration of 0.25. These results were interpreted as a signature of strong electronic correlation effects, and it was concluded that charge transport in CaMnO{sub 3−δ} occurs via strongly interacting small polarons. General prospects for strongly correlated materials as potential candidates for high temperature thermoelectric power generation were discussed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Charge Transport Modulation in PbSe Nanocrystal Solids by Au x Ag 1– x Nanoparticle Doping

Nanocrystal (NC) solids are an exciting class of materials, whose physical properties are tunable by choice of the NCs as well as the strength of the interparticle coupling. One can consider these NCs as “artificial atoms” in analogy to the formation of condensed matter from atoms. Akin to atomic doping, the doping of a semiconducting NC solid with impurity NCs can drastically alter its electronic properties. A high degree of complexity is possible in these artificial structures by adjusting the size, shape, and composition of the building blocks, which enables “designer” materials with targeted properties. Here, we present the doping of the PbSe NC solids with a series of Au x Ag 1–x alloy nanoparticles (NPs). A combination of temperature-dependent electrical conductance and Seebeck coefficient measurements and room-temperature Hall effect measurements demonstrates that the incorporation of metal NPs both modifies the charge carrier density of the NC solids and introduces energy barriers for charge transport. These studies point to charge carrier injection from the metal NPs into the PbSe NC matrix. The charge carrier density and charge transport dynamics in the doped NC solids are adjustable in a wide range by employing the Au x Ag 1–x NP with different Au:Ag ratio as dopants. Furthermore, this doping strategy could be of great interest for thermoelectric applications taking advantage of the energy filtering effect introduced by the metal NPs.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗