DETERMINATION: Doped Thermo Electric Materials in Automotive Applications.

当前提高能源效率的环境正在推动汽车市场寻求从汽车尾气中捕获废弃能源的方法。这将改善燃料消耗，减少污染，同时也减少二氧化碳的排放水平。目前用于热电（TE）发电机的材料通常是基于稀有、昂贵和不环保的化合物。包括硅化物在内的其他TE材料没有这些缺点，但它们的峰值性能超出了汽车尾气的温度范围。确定将通过应用密度泛函理论（DFT）计算模型来设计新型硅化热电材料的带隙来解决这些限制。模型材料将使用等离子炬技术合成，以提供掺杂硅化物热电材料，其ZT值在200-450℃范围内达到峰值。

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.