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Seebeck coefficient of graded porous composites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2013

Roland H. Tarkhanyan  and
Dimitris G. Niarchos
Roland H. Tarkhanyan*
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Materials, Physicochemical Processes, Nanotechnology & Microsystems, Department of Materials Science, NCSR “Demokritos”, Athens 15310, Greece; and Institute of Radiophysics & Electronics, NAS of Armenia, Ashtarak 0204, Armenia
Dimitris G. Niarchos
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Materials, Physicochemical Processes, Nanotechnology & Microsystems, Department of Materials Science, NCSR “Demokritos”, Athens 15310, Greece
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract

A physical model is developed for the enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient (S) in a porous thermoelectric material with inhomogeneous porosity. The pores are assumed to be hole and of spherical shape. We take into account the presence of trap centers situated at pore/medium interfaces and neglect changes in the carrier effective mass due to the band-bend. We show that the porosity always leads to an increase in the absolute value of S. A simple relation is derived for S in nondegenerate n-type semiconducting materials in the case when the main contribution in the carrier relaxation time at zero porosity is from the scattering on acoustic phonons. We have shown that the value of S does not depend on the orientation of the porosity gradient with respect to the direction of the temperature gradient. The relative growth of the Seebeck coefficient compared to its value in the bulk material of the same volume is examinated for different number of the pore groups with different characteristic sizes at various pore size distributions.

Keywords

thermoelectricityporositysemiconducting
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 28 , Issue 17: Focus Issue: Advances in the Synthesis, Characterization, and Properties of Bulk Porous Materials , 14 September 2013 , pp. 2316 - 2324
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013 

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