Method of producing thermoelectric material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9755128-B2
Application number	US-201414317375-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 27, 2014
Priority date	Oct 10, 2008
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

A process for manufacturing a nanocomposite thermoelectric material having a plurality of nanoparticle inclusions. The process includes determining a material composition to be investigated for the nanocomposite thermoelectric material, the material composition including a conductive bulk material and a nanoparticle material. In addition, a range of surface roughness values for the insulating nanoparticle material that can be obtained using current state of the art manufacturing techniques is determined. Thereafter, a plurality of Seebeck coefficients, electrical resistivity values, thermal conductivity values and figure of merit values as a function of the range of nanoparticle material surface roughness values is calculated. Based on these calculated values, a nanocomposite thermoelectric material composition or ranges of compositions is/are selected and manufactured.

First claim

We claim:

1. A nanocomposite thermoelectric material comprising:
a conductive matrix phase;
an insulating nanoparticle phase;
said conductive matrix phase and said insulating nanoparticle phase having an interface therebetween, said interface having an interface roughness between 0.1-0.6 nm.

2. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 1 , further comprising said interface having an interface density between 0.05-0.2 nm −1 .

3. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 2 , wherein said interface roughness is between 0.1-0.3 nm.

4. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 3 , wherein said insulating nanoparticle phase has an average surface roughness correlation length between 0.1-1.0 nm.

5. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 4 , wherein said conductive matrix phase is selected from the group consisting of a Bi-chalcogenide, Mg 2 X where X =Si, Ge or Sn, PbTe, Bi 2 Te 3 , (Bi,Sb) 2 Te 3 , Bi 2 Se 3 , and (Co,Ni)Sb3.

6. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 5 , wherein said insulating nanoparticle phase is an oxide.

7. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein said oxide is selected from the group consisting of ZrO 2 , Yb 2 O 3 and CeO 2 .

8. A nanocomposite thermoelectric material comprising:
a conductive matrix phase;
an insulating nanoparticle phase;
said conductive matrix phase and said insulating nanoparticle phase having an interface therebetween, said interface having an interface density within a range of 0.05-0.2 nm −1 and an interface roughness between 0.1-0.6 nm.

9. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 8 , wherein said interface roughness is between 0.1-0.3 nm.

10. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 9 , wherein said conductive matrix phase is selected from the group consisting of a Bi-chalcogenide, Mg 2 X where X=Si, Ge, Sn, PbTe, Bi 2 Te 3 , (Bi,Sb) 2 Te 3 , Bi 2 Se 3 , and (Co,Ni)Sb3.

11. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 10 , wherein said insulating nanoparticle phase is an oxide.

12. The nanocomposite thermoelectric material of claim 11 , wherein said oxide is selected from the group consisting of ZrO 2 , Yb 2 O 3 and CeO 2 .

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd
• Toyota Motor Eng & Mfg North America Inc

Inventors

• Banerjee Debasish
• Zhang Minjuan
• Kita Takuji
• Murai Junya

Classifications

• H01L35/34

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/26

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/16 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10N10/855

  comprising compounds containing boron, carbon, oxygen or nitrogen · CPC title