Thermoelectric enhanced ZT regime calculated by Fermi integral method

TL;DR

This paper uses the Fermi integral method to calculate and analyze the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) for various materials, aiming to guide thermoelectric material design and application.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed calculation approach for ZT using Fermi integrals, considering temperature and effective mass effects, and explores enhancement strategies through contour plots.

Findings

Identification of conditions for ZT enhancement

Comparison of thermoelectric properties across materials

Insights into temperature and effective mass influence

Abstract

We report about detailed dimensionless figure of merit ($ZT$) calculated by using Fermi integral method (compared with Bi$_2$Te$_3$, CoSb$_3$, and SrTiO$_3$) for thermoelectric (TE) materials' design and its module application. Particularly, TE properties: electrical conductivity (small polaron: $\sigma$($m$*)), Seebeck coefficient ($S$), thermal conductivity ($\kappa_e$), and $ZT$ were calculated by using reduced energy ($\zeta$=$E$/$k_B T$), as the functions of $T$, and effective mass ($m$*/$m$). Enhancement of $ZT$ was investigated by contour plots of $T$, and $m$*/$m$ versus $\zeta$.