Layered oxygen-containing thermoelectric materials: Mechanisms, strategies, and beyond

With unique features like good chemical and thermal stabilities, layered oxygen-containing thermoelectric materials and devices are prospectives for directly converting heat into electricity, or vice versa, which are due to the intrinsic complexity and super-lattice structural features. Moreover, the established literatures on these materials have shown effective strategies based on deep analysis of specific mechanisms. In this work, we have reviewed recent milestones of layered oxygen-containing thermoelectric materials (e.g., Ca3Co4O9, BiCuSeO, and Bi2O2Se), including the driving mechanisms for choosing promising candidates, pivotal strategies on enhancing the thermoelectric performance, and more importantly, on-going related developments beyond for achieving high efficiency. These unique merits, combined with potential strategies make layered oxygen-containing thermoelectric materials promising for large-scale mid-to-high temperature power generation applications.