Best thermoelectric efficiency of ever-explored materials
Byungki Ryu,
Jaywan Chung,
Masaya Kumagai,
Tomoya Mato,
Yuki Ando,
Sakiko Gunji,
Atsumi Tanaka,
Dewi Yana,
Masayuki Fujimoto,
Yoji Imai,
Yukari Katsura,
SuDong Park
Affiliations
Byungki Ryu
Energy Conversion Research Center, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), Changwon 51543, Republic of Korea; Corresponding author
Jaywan Chung
Energy Conversion Research Center, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), Changwon 51543, Republic of Korea
Masaya Kumagai
Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, RIKEN, Tokyo 103-0027, Japan; SAKURA Internet Research Center, SAKURA internet Inc., Osaka 530-0001, Japan
Tomoya Mato
Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Yuki Ando
Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Sakiko Gunji
Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Atsumi Tanaka
Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Dewi Yana
Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Masayuki Fujimoto
Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Yoji Imai
Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
Yukari Katsura
Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, RIKEN, Tokyo 103-0027, Japan; Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
SuDong Park
Energy Conversion Research Center, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), Changwon 51543, Republic of Korea
Summary: A thermoelectric device is a heat engine that directly converts heat into electricity. Many materials with a high figure of merit ZT have been discovered in the anticipation of a high thermoelectric efficiency. However, there has been a lack of investigations on efficiency-based material evaluation, and little is known about the achievable limit of thermoelectric efficiency. Here, we report the highest thermoelectric efficiency using 12,645 published materials. The 97,841,810 thermoelectric efficiencies are calculated using 808,610 device configurations under various heat-source temperatures (Th) when the cold-side temperature is 300 K, solving one-dimensional thermoelectric integral equations with temperature-dependent thermoelectric properties. For infinite-cascade devices, a thermoelectric efficiency larger than 33% (≈⅓) is achievable when Th exceeds 1400 K. For single-stage devices, the best efficiency of 17.1% (≈1/6) is possible when Th is 860 K. Leg segmentation can overcome this limit, delivering a very high efficiency of 24% (≈1/4) when Th is 1100 K.
