Recent progress and futuristic development of PbSe thermoelectric materials and devices

Exploring highly efficient thermoelectric materials to address energy generation is the current area of interest. Fundamentals of materials science, the behavior of materials, strategies, designing the structural/microstructural architects are studied so far in a wide range of material. However, due to the scarcity of Te/Ge in the earth crust, development of alternative materials with improved thermoelectric performance is required to make a highly efficient thermoelectric device for the large-scale applications. The developments are pointing the efficient performance of PbSe, and have been overcome the problem arises to obtain both n and p-type legs from a single material. Therefore, it must be important to place all current developments in the form of solid review. This review updates recent advances in high-performance bulk PbSe. The renaissance has been attained through doping, nanostructuring, engineering of band structure, microstructural architects and atomic arrangements via vacancy/dislocation ornaments. The structure-property relationship, the influence of doping, dislocations at atomic scales, and carriers/phonons transport are discussed to understand the exciting material's physics. Further possible device level abilities are also discussed for the futuristic developments. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.