Goniopolar materials for transverse thermoelectric device

抄録

Thermoelectric generators are solid-state devices capable of directly converting heat to electricity. The performance of these modules is limited by the tendency of the metal–semiconductor contacts at the hot-side to degrade due to chemical reactions and/or elemental diffusion. Transverse thermoelectric modules can be employed to address these issues because the temperature gradient and electricity are orthogonal to one another. Consequently, the exposure of metal–semiconductor contacts to high-temperature environments can be avoided, thereby improving the long-term thermal stability of the device. One approach to designing transverse thermoelectric devices is to use materials having goniopolarity, which simultaneously exhibit p- and n-type conduction along different crystallographic directions. Here, we report the goniopolarity of Mg₃Sb₂ and Mg₃Bi₂ due to their band anisotropy.