ELECTRO-TEG - Electrodeposition of thermoelectric materials to produce novel thermoelectric generator devices

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Material advances (in particular in nano-structuring) have produced a step change in the thermoelectric performance over the last 5 years which has led to some wate heat energy recovery technoloiges being commercialised within the autmotive sector. As a result, there is increased market pull and the market for these TEGs is growing considerably. However, the relatively high cost of large-scale manufacture due to labour intensive material consolidation, machining and hand assembly is hampering widespread commercialisation. It is therefore becoming clear that unless cost-effective manufacturing technologies for the production of the thermo-electric material and their integration into efficient devices are developed then mass production will be exported to low-cost economies. ELECTROTEG will address these limitations through the development of a low temperature thermoelectric electro-deposition process that will enable the commercial manufacture of fully dense nano-structured thermo-electric materials in-situ, eliminating the need for material consolidation, machining and hand assembly.