oa Thermoelectric effect for auto industry

The revolution of auto industry has led to an exponential increase in energy consumption, mainly fossil fuel, which motivated scientists to search for alternative clean, safe and sustainable energy resources. One of the promising energy sources is that produced as a byproduct from operating vehicles. This thermal energy can be harvested and reused as a viable secure source of electricity by utilizing thermoelectric (TE) devices. The TE solid state devices are designed using two dissimilar materials, p- and n-type semiconductors, connected electrically in series and thermally in parallel [1]. They can be designed to convert thermal energy from a temperature gradient into electrical energy (Seebeck effect), where carriers diffuse from the hot to the cold side creating a voltage drop and a current flow. Semiconductor materials potentially produce superior thermoelectric devices due to their higher ratio of electrical to thermal conductivity as compared to metals since the latter possess low Seebeck coefficients of 10 μV/K [2]. In this work, we present two types of thermoelectric materials designed from intermetallic Fe2VAl Heusler alloy, which comprise a new class of TE materials that are promising for many auto industry applications. This alloy was not carefully investigated in the past and did not receive significant attention yet [3]. Thermoelectric calculations showed that Fe2VAl has both p-type and n-type thermoelectric properties, which is necessary to design TE devices that consist of alternating legs of the two materials. The Seebeck coefficient has maximum values between (20 – 125) μV/K for the p-type and (19 –90) μV/K for the n-type, in the temperature range from 100 K to 800 K. References: [1] B.C. Sales, Science 295, 1248 (2002). [2] T. M. Tritt and M.A. Subramanian, MRS BULLETIN 31, MARCH 2006 [3] Kanchana et al., Phys. Rev. B 80, 125108 (2009).