Thermoelectrics articles from across Nature Portfolio

Doping is a common strategy to improve thermoelectric performance yet limited to the solid solubility of dopants. Here, the authors find that forming metavalently bonded precipitates is key to property enhancement in Te rather than modifying the matrix lattice.

Bayesian optimization improved the thermoelectric properties of InGaAsSb thin films; this domain warrants comprehensive investigation due to the need to simultaneously control multiple parameters, such as, the composition, dopant concentration, and film-deposition temperatures. After six optimization cycles, the dimensionless figure of merit exhibited an approximately threefold improvement compared to its values obtained in the random initial experimental trials. These findings not only promote the development of thermoelectric devices based on III–V semiconductors but also highlight the effectiveness of using Bayesian optimization for multicomponent materials.

It is hard to simultaneously improve electrical and thermal properties of materials due to the strong coupling of carrier and phonon transport. Here, the authors propose a one-pot modulation strategy for simultaneously adjusting carrier and phonon transport in copper sulfids.

Nanostructure engineering enables transforming simple magnetic alloys into spincaloritronic materials with large transverse thermoelectric conversion. This has led to a high anomalous Nernst coefficient in flexible Fe-based amorphous alloys.

Vacancies are traditionally considered to play a role of phonon-defect scattering. Here, the authors show that vacancies can induce phonon softening, enhance phonon anharmonicity, and cause a dramatic reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity.

An article in Nature Materials reports the use of a co-doping strategy to produce a Cu₂Se-based superionic material that has a figure of merit of 3 at 1,050 K, an efficiency of over 13% when integrated into a thermoelectric module and good operational stability.

Restricting the directional segregation of mobile ions via strategic local ion confinement allows remarkable thermoelectric performance with better stability.

P-type and n-type exfoliated Bi₂Te₃ thin films show high power generation performance at room temperature for flexible thermoelectric devices.

A thermoelectric material is presented which adopts a tungsten bronze structure with high-entropy properties but without rare-earth metals. Through entropy engineering, the Seebeck coefficient is optimized and the thermal conductivity is minimized, thereby creating the most efficient thermoelectric material of its kind.

An article in Nature Communications reports on a flexible semimetal with high thermopower that can enable low-temperature solid-state cooling.