Thermoelectric materials which directly convert between thermal and electrical energy can address some of today's energy concerns through cutting carbon dioxide emissions and recovering waste heat.We are exploring intermetallic compounds with the half heusler crystal structure which are known to exhibit superior thermoelectric properties. These 18 electron systems not only show interesting physical properties but also offer a wide variety in their elemental composition. Moreover, many of them contain abundant and 'green' elements as opposed to lead or bismuth telluride which are typically used in thermoelectric devices.NiTiSn and CoTiSb are among the most widely investigated half heusler thermoelectric materials and most research efforts focus mainly on reducing their rather high thermal conductivity through doping with heavier elements or nanostructuring. We are using a rapid microwave synthesis, which is energy efficient and reduces the reaction time to minutes, to access materials based on those two parent compounds.

Rapid solid state microwave synthesis of intermetallic thermoelectrics adopting the half heusler crystal structure

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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