Processing Nanocrystalline Thermoelectric Oxides for High Efficiency Energy Harvesting

该赠款为开发一种加工技术提供资金，以制造纳米晶热电氧化物，用于高效能量收集;废热可以被捕获并转化为电能。这一过程将提供一种可行的制造技术，具有经济和可扩展的潜力。将热电氧化物材料电纺成纳米纤维，然后通过烧结将其固结成具有纳米晶结构的高密度、高效率的块状热电氧化物。预期所得的晶粒尺寸在数十纳米的范围内，这将显著降低材料的热导率，同时提高热电品质因数（即转换效率）。热电纳米纤维和块状纳米晶氧化物的结构和性能的详细和系统的表征也将进行调查热电氧化物的加工-结构-性能的关系。热电材料是一种将热能直接转化为电能的新型材料，它能以一种环境友好的方式回收能源循环中大量的废热。如果成功，这项研究的结果将导致热电氧化物材料具有改善的热电优值和转换效率，并将为废热的高效能量收集奠定基础。本项目开发的制造技术也可用于加工其他纳米晶材料，应用范围广泛。该项目将培训研究生和本科生。它还将通过教师研究经验计划（RET），高中生暑期实习和小学科学演示为K-12学校提供外展活动。

This grant provides funding for the development of a processing technique to manufacture nanocrystalline thermoelectric oxides for high efficiency energy harvesting; waste heat can be captured and converted to electricity. This process will provide a viable manufacturing technique that has the potential to be both economical and scalable. Thermo-electric oxide material will be electrospun into nanofibers which will then be consolidated via sintering into high-density high-efficiency bulk thermoelectric oxides with nanocrystalline structure. The resulting grain size is expected to be in the range of tens of nanometers which should substantially reduce the thermal conductivity of the material and at the same time improve the thermoelectric figure-of-merit (i.e conversion efficiency). Detailed and systematic characterization of the resulting structure and properties of thermoelectric nanofibers and bulk nanocrystalline oxides will also be carried out to investigate the processing-structure-property relationship of thermoelectric oxides. Thermoelectric materials that convert heat directly into electricity is promising in harvesting a vast amount of waste heat lost in energy cycle in an environment friendly manner. If successful, the results of this research will lead to thermoelectric oxide materials with improved thermoelectric figure-of-merit and conversion efficiency, and will lay a foundation for high efficiency energy harvesting of waste heat. The manufacturing technique developed in this project can also be applied to process other nanocrystalline materials for a wide range of applications. The project will train graduate and undergraduate students. It will also offer outreach activities to K-12 schools though the Research Experience for Teachers program (RET), summer internship for high school students, and science demos at elementary schools.