Half-Heusler alloys as emerging high power density thermoelectric cooling materials.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37280195.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-38446-0 and PMC identifier 10244423.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
To achieve optimal thermoelectric performance, it is crucial to manipulate the scattering processes within materials to decouple the transport of phonons and electrons. In half-Heusler (hH) compounds, selective defect reduction can significantly improve performance due to the weak electron-acoustic phonon interaction. This study utilized Sb-pressure controlled annealing process to modulate the microstructure and point defects of Nb<sub>0.55</sub>Ta<sub>0.40</sub>Ti<sub>0.05</sub>FeSb compound, resulting in a 100% increase in carrier mobility and a maximum power factor of 78 µW cm<sup>-1</sup> K<sup>-2</sup>, approaching the theoretical prediction for NbFeSb single crystal. This approach yielded the highest average zT of ~0.86 among hH in the temperature range of 300-873 K. The use of this material led to a 210% enhancement in cooling power density compared to Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub>-based devices and a conversion efficiency of 12%. These results demonstrate a promising strategy for optimizing hH materials for near-room-temperature thermoelectric applications.