Thermoelectric conversion material and thermoelectric conversion module

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11424398-B2
Application number	US-202016843454-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 8, 2020
Priority date	Apr 10, 2019
Publication date	Aug 23, 2022
Grant date	Aug 23, 2022

Abstract

The present invention improves the performance of a thermoelectric conversion material and a thermoelectric conversion module. A thermoelectric conversion material has a mother phase containing a chimney ladder type compound comprising a first element of groups 4 to 9 and a second element of groups 13 to 15 and an additive phase existing at a grain boundary of the mother phase, the mother phase contains a third element to change a lattice constant of the chimney ladder type compound, and the additive phase contains the second element.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thermoelectric conversion material comprising: a mother phase containing a chimney ladder type compound comprising a first element of groups 4 to 9 and a second element of groups 13 to 15; and an additive phase existing at a grain boundary of the mother phase, wherein:
the chimney ladder type compound contains a third element and has a different lattice constant than the chimney ladder type compound in a mother phase which does not contain the third element; the chimney ladder type compound contains a fourth element, different than the third element, and has a different lattice constant than the chimney ladder type compound in a mother phase which does not contain the fourth element; wherein the third element changes a composition ratio of the second element to the first element in the chimney ladder type compound by replacing part of the second element with the third element; wherein the fourth element changes a composition ratio of the first element to the second element by replacing part of the first element with the fourth element; wherein the additive phase contains the second element, an atomic weight of the third element is larger than an atomic weight of the second element.

2. The thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 1 , wherein the mother phase and the additive phase: do not form a chemical compound by any reaction of eutectic reaction, eutectoid reaction, peritectic reaction, peritectoid reaction, monotectic reaction, or segregation reaction; and exist in separate states from each other.

3. The thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 1 , wherein the additive phase contains a fifth element to form a chemical compound with the second element.

4. The thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 3 , wherein the fifth element is Ge or Sn.

5. The thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 1 , wherein the third element is Ge or Sn.

6. The thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 1 , wherein:
the fourth element is an element having a valence different from the first element.

7. The thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 6 , wherein the fourth element is Cr, Fe, Mo, Ru, Rh, W, Os or Ir.

8. The thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 1 , wherein:
an atomic weight of the fourth element is larger than an atomic weight of the first element.

9. The thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 8 , wherein the fourth element is Mo, Ru, Rh, W, Re, Os or Ir.

10. A thermoelectric conversion module having a thermoelectric conversion section containing the thermoelectric conversion material according to claim 1 .

11. The thermoelectric conversion module according to claim 10 , wherein the thermoelectric conversion section is a π type.

12. The thermoelectric conversion module according to claim 10 , wherein the thermoelectric conversion section is a uni-leg type.

13. The thermoelectric conversion module according to claim 10 , wherein the thermoelectric conversion section is a transverse type.

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Kurosaki Yosuke
• Yabuuchi Shin
• Hayakawa Jun
• Miyazaki Yuzuru
• Takamatsu Tomohisa
• Hayashi Kei

Classifications

• H01L35/12

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/32

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10N10/8556 Primary

  comprising compounds containing germanium or silicon · CPC title

• H10N10/17

  characterised by the structure or configuration of the cell or thermocouple forming the device · CPC title