New Materials for Thermoelectric Energy Conversion

A critically important and developing area in materials science is the discovery of new thermoelectric materials with enhanced efficiency. These materials are capable of converting heat (such as that from an active source like the sun, or waste heat from an industrial process) to electricity; their use can offer an increase in energy efficiency for industrial processes as well as provide additional sources of useful electrical energy. Current research is focused on filled skutterudite compounds, unusual intermetallic semiconductors, and nanoscale lead telluride-based thermoelectrics.

Reviewed Journal Publications

Heremans, J.P.; Thrush, C.M.; Morelli, D.T. "Thermopower Enhancement in PbTe with Pb Precipitates," J. Appl. Phys. 98, 063703, (2005).

Heremans, J.P.; Thrush, C.M.; Morelli, D.T. "Thermopower Enhancement in Lead Telluride Nanostructures," Phys. Rev. B 70, 115334, (2004).

Yang, J.; Morelli, D.T.; Meisner, G.P.; Chen, W.; Dyck, J.S.; Uher, C. "Effect of Sn Substituting for Sb on the Low Temperature Transport Properties of Ytterbium Filled Skutterudites," Phys. Rev. B 67, 165207, (2003).

Morelli, D.T.; Heremans, J.P.; Thrush, C.M. "Magnetic and Thermal Properties of Iron Doped Lead Telluride," Phys. Rev. B 67, 035206, (2003).

Heremans, J.P.; Thrush, C.M.; Morelli, D.T.; Wu, M.-C. "Resistance, Magnetoresistance, and Thermopower of Zinc Nanowire Composites," Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 076804, (2003).

Grandjean, F.; Long, G.J.; Mathieu, B.; Yang, J.; Meisner, G.P.; Morelli, D.T. "Study of the Electronic Properties of Some Ytterbium Filled Skutterudites by Magnetic Susceptibility and X-Ray Absorption and tin-119 Mossbauer Spectroscopy," J. Appl. Phys. 94, 6683-6691, (2003).

Morelli, D.T.; Heremans, J.P. "Thermal Conductivity of Germanium, Silicon, and Carbon Nitrides," Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 5126-5128, (2002).

Slack, G.A.; Schowalter, L.J.; Morelli, D.T.; Freitas, J.A. "Some Effects of Oxygen Impurities on AlN and GaN," J. Crystal Growth 246, 287-298, (2002).

Morelli, D.T.; Heremans, J.P.; Slack, G.A. "Estimation of the Isotope Effect on the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Group IV and Group III-V Semiconductors," Phys. Rev. B 66,195304 (2002).

Books, Chapters, Monographs

Morelli, D.T.; Slack, G.A. "High Lattice Thermal Conductivity Solids," in High Thermal Conductivity Materials; Shinde, S.; Goela, J., Eds., Springer: New York, NY, 37-64, (2005).

Morelli, D.T. "Thermoelectric Devices," In Encyclopedia of Applied Physics; VCH: New York, NY, Vol. 21, 339-354, (1997).

Reviews

Nolas, G.S; Morelli, D.T.; Tritt, T.M. "Skutterudites: A Phonon-Glass-Electron-Crystal Approach to Advanced Thermoelectric Materials Research,: Annual Reviews of Materials Science 29, 89-116, (1999).