4.6 Article

Thermoelectric figure-of-merit from Peltier cooling

期刊

JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
卷 132, 期 17, 页码 -

出版社

AIP Publishing
DOI: 10.1063/5.0116327

关键词

-

资金

  1. R.A. Bowen Endowed Professorship at Clemson University

向作者/读者索取更多资源

We experimentally determine the thermoelectric figure-of-merit of a material using Peltier cooling, where the maximum temperature depression, delta T-max, is related to Z of a thermocouple. However, for thermocouples made of good thermoelectric materials, delta T-max can be large, making it difficult to assign the measurement to a specific temperature. In this study, we propose a procedure to measure the dimensionless figure-of-merit of a semiconductor using semiconductor-metal thermocouples, optimizing the form factor. We also investigate the impact of varying material dimensions on the delta T-max measurement. Our experiments show the significant radiation losses at ordinary temperatures and suggest minimizing radiation losses for obtaining accurate thermal conductivity and zT estimation.
We use Peltier cooling to experimentally determine the thermoelectric figure-of-merit of a material, where the maximum temperature depression, delta T-max, is simply related to Z of a thermocouple. However, for thermocouples comprising good thermoelectric materials with ZT >= 1, delta T-max can be large (>= 100 K), making it difficult to assign the measurement to a particular temperature. This is less of a problem if the thermocouple consists of a semiconductor and a metal since ZT and delta T-max are then much smaller. We developed a procedure for measuring the dimensionless figure-of-merit of a semiconductor using semiconductor-metal thermocouples in which the form factor (i.e., the ratio of areas to lengths of the two branches) is optimized. We also show valuable aspects in the delta T-max measurement when the material dimensions are varied. Our experiments on couples consisting of a bismuth telluride alloy and constantan, and the corresponding theoretical analysis, show that the radiation losses are significant at ordinary temperatures. A good estimate of thermal conductivity and zT of the sample can be obtained when radiation losses are minimized.

作者

我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。

评论

主要评分

4.6
评分不足

次要评分

新颖性
-
重要性
-
科学严谨性
-
评价这篇论文

推荐

暂无数据
暂无数据