Method of producing thermoelectric material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9847470-B2
Application number	US-201213548395-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2012
Priority date	Apr 26, 2011
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

A thermoelectric material is provided. The material can be a grain boundary modified nanocomposite that has a plurality of bismuth antimony telluride matrix grains and a plurality of zinc oxide nanoparticles within the plurality of bismuth antimony telluride matrix grains. In addition, the material has zinc antimony modified grain boundaries between the plurality of bismuth antimony telluride matrix grains.

First claim

We claim:

1. A thermoelectric material comprising:
a grain boundary modified nanocomposite having a plurality of bismuth antimony telluride matrix grains;
a plurality of zinc oxide nanoparticles within said plurality of bismuth antimony telluride matrix grains; and
zinc antimony modified grain boundaries consisting of zinc and antimony between said plurality of bismuth antimony telluride matrix grains.

2. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein said grain boundary modified nanocomposite has an electrical conductivity greater than 21,000 S/m and a thermal conductivity less than 0.6 W/mK at temperatures less than and equal to 200° C.

3. The thermoelectric material of claim 2 , wherein said grain boundary modified nanocomposite has a figure of merit ZT greater than 1.0 at temperatures up to 100° C.

4. The thermoelectric material of claim 3 , wherein said grain boundary modified nanocomposite has a figure of merit ZT greater than 0.6 at temperatures up to 200° C.

5. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein said grain boundary modified nanocomposite has an electrical conductivity at least 30 percent greater than an electrical conductivity for an analogous nanocomposite not having said zinc antimony modified grain boundaries.

6. The thermoelectric material of claim 5 , wherein said grain boundary modified nanocomposite has a thermal conductivity at least 35 percent less than a thermal conductivity for an analogous nanocomposite not having said zinc antimony modified grain boundaries.

7. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein said grain boundary modified nanocomposite has a charge carrier mobility at least 60 percent greater than a charge carrier mobility for an analogous nanocomposite not having said zinc antimony modified grain boundaries.

8. The thermoelectric material of claim 7 , wherein said grain boundary modified nanocomposite has a figure of merit ZT at least 80 percent greater than a figure of merit ZT for an analogous nanocomposite not having said zinc antimony modified grain boundaries.

Assignees

• Rowe Michael Paul
• Zhou Li Qin
• Zhang Minjuan
• Banerjee Debasish
• Toyota Eng & Mfg North America

Inventors

• Rowe Michael Paul
• Zhou Li Qin
• Zhang Minjuan
• Banerjee Debasish

Classifications

• H01L35/18

  Electricity · mapped topic

• Y10S977/779

  Possessing nanosized particles, powders, flakes, or clusters other than simple atomic impurity doping · CPC title

• B82Y30/00 Primary

  Nanotechnology for materials or surface science, e.g. nanocomposites · CPC title

• H01L35/16

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L35/26 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic