DETERMINATION: Doped Thermo Electric Materials in Automotive Applications.

当前提高能源效率的气候正在推动汽车市场寻求从汽车尾气中捕获废能的方法。这将改善燃料消耗，减少污染，同时也减少二氧化碳排放量。目前用于热电（TE）发电机的材料通常基于稀缺、昂贵且对环境不利的化合物。包括硅化物在内的其他TE材料不受这些缺点的影响，但它们的峰值性能位于汽车排气内经历的温度范围之外。DETERMINATION将通过应用密度泛函理论（DFT）计算建模来设计新型硅化物热电材料的带隙，从而解决这些限制。将使用等离子体炬技术合成模型材料，以提供在200-450 oC温度范围内具有峰值的上级ZT值的掺杂硅化物热电材料。

The current climate for improved energy efficiency is driving the automotive market to seek ways of capturing waste energy from car exhausts. This will improve fuel consumption and reduce pollution while also reducing the levels of carbon dioxide emitted. Current materials for thermoelectric (TE) generators are typically based on compounds that are scarce, expensive and environmentally unsound. Other TE materials including silicides do not suffer from these drawbacks but their peak performance lies outside of the temperature range experienced within an automotive exhaust. DETERMINATION will address these limitations by applying Density Functional Theory (DFT) computational modelling to engineer the band gap of novel silicide thermoelectric materials. Model materials will be synthesised using plasma torch technology to deliver doped silicide thermoelectrics that exhibit superior ZT values that peak in the temperature range 200-450 oC.