Efficient and affordable thermoelectric measurement setup using Arduino and LabVIEW for education and research

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-cost, user-friendly thermoelectric measurement system using Arduino and LabVIEW, enabling detailed property measurements suitable for education and research with minimal equipment.

Contribution

The work presents a novel, affordable measurement setup that significantly improves Arduino resolution for thermoelectric property analysis, making advanced measurements accessible.

Findings

Achieved ~1000x resolution enhancement with amplifiers and noise reduction.

Total cost of ~$100 makes it accessible for educational and research purposes.

Simultaneous measurement of Seebeck coefficient and power factor as a function of temperature.

Abstract

Thermoelectric materials can convert thermal energy into electricity, making them promising candidates for harvesting waste heat, an increasingly important challenge in the energy-intensive modern world. The search for improved thermoelectric materials is therefore an active area of research in materials physics. Despite their fundamental and practical significance, thermoelectric properties - such as the Seebeck coefficient and power factor - are rarely explored in student labs due to the complexity in measurement schemes and requirement for sophisticated equipment. In this work, we present a user-friendly, low-cost and efficient thermoelectric measurement system built with Arduino and LabVIEW, which can simultaneously measure Seebeck coefficients and power factors as a function of temperature. This was made possible by improving the resolution of Arduino over ~1000 times with amplifiers and noise reduction schemes. With a total cost of only ~$100 and simple measurement protocols, this setup is well suited not only for student labs but also for efficient thermoelectric research.