Thermoelectric material and thermoelectric element including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9595652-B2
Application number	US-201514607217-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2015
Priority date	Jan 29, 2014
Publication date	Mar 14, 2017
Grant date	Mar 14, 2017

Abstract

Provided is a thermoelectric material including metal oxide powder and thermoelectric powder. Thus, an internal filling rate is improved so that a Peltier effect can be maximized according to the increase of electrical conductivity and a Seebeck coefficient and the reduction of thermal conductivity, thereby enabling the improvement of the figure of merit (ZT) of a thermoelectric element.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thermoelectric material, comprising:
thermoelectric powder containing at least one element selected from the group consisting of Bi, Sb, Te, and Se; and
metal oxide powder having an aspect ratio of 1:5 to 1:20, wherein the metal oxide powder is added in an amount of 0.01 to 0.5 wt % based on a total weight of the thermoelectric material.

2. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , which has a bulk form.

3. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein the metal oxide power is at least one oxide selected from the group consisting of Bi 2 O 3 , NiO, and CuO.

4. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein the metal oxide powder has a particle size of 10 nm to 10 μm.

5. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein the thermoelectric powder further contains Ag or Cu.

6. A thermoelectric material, comprising:
25 to 35 wt % of a first thermoelectric powder having a particle diameter of 1 to 3 μm containing at least one selected from Bi—Te—Sb based powder and Bi—Te—Se based powder;
45 to 55 wt % of a second thermoelectric powder having a particle size of 6 to 8 μm containing at least one selected from Bi—Te—Sb based powder and Bi—Ti—Se based powder;
0.1 to 0.8 wt % of a metal oxide;
2 to 4 wt % of a glass frit;
8 to 12.5 wt % of a vehicle; and
0.5 to 10 wt % of an additive.

7. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein the first or second thermoelectric powder is P-type powder selected from Bi 2-x-y Sb x-y Te 3 Ag y or Bi 2-x Sb x Te 3 (where, 0.1<x<0.5, 0<y<0.1).

8. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein the first or second thermoelectric powder is N-type powder selected from Bi 2 Te 3-x-y Se x Cu y or Bi 2 Te 3-x Se x (where, 0.1<x<0.5, 0<y<0.1).

9. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein the glass frit is a PbO—SiO 2 —B 2 O 3 —Al 2 O 3 -based glass frit.

10. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein the vehicle is formed by dissolving an organic binder in a solvent,
wherein the solvent is selected from the group consisting of terpineol, carbitol, hexyl carbitol, butyl carbitol, butyl carbitol acetate, texonol, and dimethyl adipate, and
the binder is at least one resin selected from the group consisting of acrylic resin, cellulose resin and alkyd resin.

11. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein the metal oxide is at least one oxide selected from the group consisting of V 2 O 5 , NiO, CuO, Cu 2 O, Bi 2 O 3 , TeO 2 , CeO 2 , PbO, Tl 2 O 3 , and a mixture thereof.

12. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein the additive further comprises at least one supplemental agent selected from the group consisting of a plasticizer, an antifoaming agent, a dispersing agent, a thixotropic agent, and a surfactant.

13. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , further comprising 1.7 wt % or more of an additional solvent.

14. A thermoelectric element comprising a thermoelectric material according to claim 6 , the thermoelectric element having a thick film structure with a thickness of 10 to 250 μm.

Assignees

• Lg Innotek Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kim Sang Gon
• Kim Sook Hyun
• Shin Jong Bae
• Won Boone
• Cho Yong Sang
• Lee Hyung Eui

Classifications

• H10N10/852 Primary

  comprising tellurium, selenium or sulfur · CPC title

• C22C32/0015

  with only single oxides as main non-metallic constituents · CPC title

• H01L35/16 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• C22C1/0483

  Alloys based on the low melting point metals Zn, Pb, Sn, Cd, In or Ga · CPC title