IRES: International Collaboration on Fabrication and Characterization of Nanocrystalline Bismuth Telluride Materials for Thermoelectric Applications

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In this program, graduate and undergraduate students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) will carry out research for 8 summer weeks at the Institute of Microelectronica in Madrid (IMM) in Spain. The collaboration with IMM is focused on investigating electrodeposited nanocrystalline bismuth telluride materials for highly efficient thermoelectric energy conversion. Nanocrystalinity has been recently shown as being a very effective method for improving the efficiency of thermoelectric materials; in parallel, electrodeposition is an inexpensive technique that can be used to manufacture nanostructured materials. A systematic study will be undertaken to investigate methods to control crystallite size of electrodeposited materials, with emphasize on spatial confinement of electrodeposition, which will be achieved by deposition in cylindrical nanopores. The thermoelectrical properties of the new materials will be thoroughly characterized to correlate crystallite size with property enhancement. RPI students will participate in both material synthesis (at IMM)) and property characterization (at IMM and RPI). As a pre-requisite to the summer program in Spain, all students will take an independent study with the PI to learn about experimental methods and theoretical aspects relevant to the proposed studies.The broader impact is multi-faceted. A cost-effective method for manufacturing highly efficient thermoelectric devices will greatly facilitate the application of thermoelectric devices in numerous fields, most important for waste heat recovery. Moreover, this will be the first time to explore spatial confining of electrochemical deposition to control grain size of electroplated materials. The results of these studies may find applications in other fields such as nanomanufacturing; electroplating in nanopores could become a basic tool for developing nanocrystalline materials. Furthermore, the students involved in this study will start building up an international professional network and will learn to work in an interdisciplinary, multi-cultural environment. The results of this collaboration will be disseminated by presentations at conferences, publication of journal papers, as well as outreach to high school students and teachers.