The availability of new materials is expected to promote thermoelectric industrialization

Recently, the research group of Tang Guodong, associate professor of Nanjing University of Science and Technology, has prepared a new type of thermoelectric material - tin selenide - lead selenide phase separation block, which has a simpler preparation process, more stable mechanical properties, lower production costs, and easy scale The application of chemical production, superior value of thermoelectricity (ZT value). The research results were published in the top international journal "Journal of the American Chemical Society".

The thermoelectric material is a new type of energy material that directly converts thermal energy and electric energy. Thermoelectric power generation devices and refrigeration devices made of thermoelectric materials have the advantages of small size, no need for transmission parts, no pollutant emission, no wear and high reliability. However, the lower thermoelectric efficiency of thermoelectric materials is a major factor restricting the large-scale application of thermoelectric devices. Tang Guodong introduced that this material uses low-temperature synthesis technology to reduce the material synthesis temperature, combined with rapid non-equilibrium sintering method to reduce the solid solubility of the material, resulting in the precipitation phase and then obtained. This achievement achieved a new breakthrough in the performance of thermoelectric materials, which raised the thermoelectric value of thermoelectric materials to 1.7, which broke the record for the highest value of the properties of polycrystalline material of tin selenide bulk. The material is expected to be widely used in the field of thermoelectricity, and thermoelectric devices made with it can be used in the iron and steel power plant where a large amount of heat energy is generated to convert a large amount of waste heat into electric energy. (Correspondent Ge Lingling Li Yusheng reporter Zhang Hao)