Convergence of Electronic Bands for High Performance Bulk Thermoelectrics

Hot source The use of thermoelectric devices to convert waste heat into electricity is anticipated to find many applications, but most thermoelectric materials are relatively inefficient. Attempts are being made to improve this situation, with many researchers focusing on the use of nanostructuring to engineer the desired combination of thermal and electrical properties into the devices. Pei and colleagues now show that such a tailoring of properties is also possible in a bulk alloy through careful control of composition and chemical doping, yielding a high performance thermoelectric material.