Affiliations: | |
Project Leader: | Nader Ghassemi nader@tamu.edu Physics and Astronomy |
Faculty Mentor: | Joseph Ross, Jr., Ph.D. |
Meeting Times:
|
Spring 2017: Friday 2:00-3:00 PM |
Team Size:
|
3 (Team Full) |
Open Spots: | 0 |
Special Opportunities:
|
|
Team Needs:
|
|
Description:
|
Thermoelectric technology has the ability to realize direct conversion between heat and electricity. Compared to the traditional refrigeration and energy generation technologies, thermoelectric technology has the advantages of having no moving parts, quiet, and long term stability. Thus, thermoelectric technology offers a great potential for the use in many cooling and power generating applications to help combat the global energy dilemma. In our lab, we will work on dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit near unity in compounds of the form Cu12-xMxSb4S13, where M is a transition metal such as Zn or Fe, for wide ranges of x. The compounds we will investigate span the range of compositions of the natural mineral family of tetrahedrites, the most widespread sulfosalts on Earth, using NMR spectroscopy, magnetic measurements, computational methods, and other techniques. In this studies of advanced thermoelectric materials, we investigate quantum effects in semiconductor phase and our goal is to show that the natural mineral itself can be used directly as an inexpensive source thermoelectric material. Thermoelectrics comprised of earth-abundant elements will pave the way to many new, low cost thermoelectric energy generation opportunities. |