Other Thermoelectric Materials

Thermoelectric (TE) energy conversion technology, which can be used to convert waste heat into electricity, has received much attention in the past decade. Many new TE materials have been developed. Oxide TE materials possess several advantages compared with the other compounds such as chemical and thermal stability, resource abundance, and simple preparation. Since Ni doping and tellurium (Te) doping lead to the highest ZT and PF in the CoSbS system,84,87 respectively, the following section mainly focuses on their corresponding TE properties. Due to the beneficial valence band structure, CoSbS-based compounds exhibit a high potential of high PF. High-throughput DFT defect calculations reveal Ni, Lead, and Te as promising dopant candidates for CoSbS. BiCuSeO is a promising oxide TE material with the intrinsically low thermal conductivity and moderate Seebeck coefficient. However, low electrical conductivity leads to a low ZT value. Acceptor doping, inducing vacancies, and band engineering are adopted to tune the electrical conductivity.